Where do new words come from?
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
Everybody’s blogging. But does anyone remember where the word came from? A few short years ago, we called it ‘web logging.’ That seemed to last about a month before we shortened it to ‘blogging.’ ‘Blog’ and other blended words like ‘smog’ (‘smoke’ and ‘fog’) and ‘bash’ (‘bang’ and ‘smash’) are called portmanteaus, and we can thank Lewis Carroll and Jabberwocky, his poem of nonsense verse, for that.
From Jabberwocky
“‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe”‘Portmanteau’ in the sense of a blended word was first used by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass (1871) when Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of the unusual words in Carroll’s poem Jabberwocky: “‘Slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy’. . . You see it’s like a portmanteau — there are two meanings packed up into one word.” “‘Mimsy,’” he continues, “is ‘flimsy and miserable’ (there’s another portmanteau … for you).” The word ‘portmanteau,’ which originally meant a suitcase containing two separate hinged compartments, is itself a portmanteau, originating from the French portmanteau, meaning ‘coat carrier’ formed from porter (to carry) and manteau (cloak).
And from ‘no teletrack payday loans’
The portmanteau is an example of how language changes and evolves to describe new discoveries and innovations. We see new portmanteaus every day. Take for example, the word ‘teletrack.’ ‘Teletrack’ is the name of a credit reporting service on its way to becoming a proprietary eponym like ‘kleenex,’ ‘coke,’ and ‘xerox.’ We see it used indiscriminately as a noun, adjective, and verb on websites and in emails promising ’same day payday loans’ without a credit check. But ‘teletrack’ also refers to the telecast of horse-racing events and it appears to be a portmanteau of ‘telecast’ and ‘racetrack.’
Where do new words go?
Portmanteaus find their way into the vernacular long before they appear in mainstream dictionaries. While a few do make it into dictionaries, many more go the way of obscurity. Humpty Dumpty’s metaphorical explanation of two distinct words being packed into one bag also applies to Carroll’s coinage in Jabberwocky of ‘fumious’ (‘fuming’ and ‘furious’), ‘frabjous’ (probably ‘fair,’ ‘fabulous,’ and ‘joyous’) and ‘chortle’ (‘chuckle’ and ‘snort’). Of these enchanting portmanteaus, ‘chortle’ alone has an entry in mainstream dictionaries. Other portmanteaus that have achieved this venerable status include:
- avionics (aviation + electronics)
- Beatles (beat + beetles)
- because (by + cause)
- bionic (biology + electronic)
- bit (binary + digit)
- blotch (blot + botch)
- breathalyzer (breath + analyzer)
- brunch (breakfast + lunch)
- camcorder (camera + recorder)
- chump (chunk + lump)
- dumbfound (dumb + confound)
- email (electronic + mail)
- glob (gob + blob)
- good-bye (God + be(with) + ye)
- hassle (haggle + tussle)
- humongous (huge + monstrous)
- internet (international + network)
- modem (modulator + demodulator)
- motel (motor + hotel)
- multiplex (multiple + complex)
- muppet (marionette + puppet)
- nucleonic (nuclear + electronic)
- paratroop (parachute + troop)
- pixel (picture + elements)
- prissy (prim + sissy)
- quasar (quasi-stellar + radio)
- sitcom (situation + comedy)
- skyjack (sky + hijack)
- smash (smack + mash)
- squiggle (squirm + wiggle)
Good old Lewis Carroll. The incredibly interesting thing about his most famous work, Alice in Wonderland, is that the book is more or less a long exercise in mathematical logic. If you look at the conversations that the characters have, such as Alice with the Cheshire Cat or the Mad Hatter, you’ll notice that they are all presented in the form of logic problems. A lot of “if then” and “therefore” statements. It’s quite interesting, if you’re into that sort of thing.