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When new discoveries and inventions are made and new technologies are developed, new terms, new concepts, new problems and issues and even new diseases are born! So we feel the need of suitable expressions to name them. Where do we get them from?
One way is for the user to take two already existing words and just join them together (i.e., literally remove the space between them!) A new word which gives a different meaning altogether is created, as in book + worm = bookworm, or, green + house = greenhouse, or, wind + fall = windfall and so on. (Original 'bookworm' is actually a worm which eats - literally - the pages of the book and is not considered here.)
There is another, rather a more fascinating way, new words get coined from old words. Here, a bit of this word and a bit of that word are taken, abracadabra, and lo, behold! A new word, with a totally new meaning is born! Such words are known as ‘portmanteau’ words!
Want examples?
breakfast + lunch = brunch; internal + communication = intercom; transfer + resistor = transistor; electronic + mail = email; emotion + icon = emoticon; smoke + fog = smog; flounce + blunder = flounder; haggle + tussle = hassle; high + fidelity = hi-fi; science + fiction = sci-fi; gene + chromosome = genome; free + software = freeware; pulsating + star = pulsar; Hindi + English = Hinglish; motor + hotel = motel; information + entertainment = infotainment; medical + care = medicare; documentary + drama = docudrama; sea + landscape = seascape; breath + analyzer = breathalyzer ; camera + recorder = camcorder ; parachute + trooper = paratrooper and so on and on and on.
There is even a country name which is a portmanteau word because it was formed by combining two separate countries into one! Tanganyika + Zanzibar = Tanzania!
At times, rarely though, the spelling of the newly formed word takes on new letters, not found in either of the parent words, due to their pronunciation, as in, picture + element = pixel;
There are not so well-known portmanteau words too, such as, chuckle + snort = chortle; channel + tunnel = chunnel; fantastic + fabulous = fantabulous; gasoline + alcohol = gasohol; splash + surge = splurge; spoon + fork = spork; man + animal = manimal and so on.
My request to all interested members: If you come across rare portmanteau words, please do post them, for the benefit of all!
One way is for the user to take two already existing words and just join them together (i.e., literally remove the space between them!) A new word which gives a different meaning altogether is created, as in book + worm = bookworm, or, green + house = greenhouse, or, wind + fall = windfall and so on. (Original 'bookworm' is actually a worm which eats - literally - the pages of the book and is not considered here.)
There is another, rather a more fascinating way, new words get coined from old words. Here, a bit of this word and a bit of that word are taken, abracadabra, and lo, behold! A new word, with a totally new meaning is born! Such words are known as ‘portmanteau’ words!
Want examples?
breakfast + lunch = brunch; internal + communication = intercom; transfer + resistor = transistor; electronic + mail = email; emotion + icon = emoticon; smoke + fog = smog; flounce + blunder = flounder; haggle + tussle = hassle; high + fidelity = hi-fi; science + fiction = sci-fi; gene + chromosome = genome; free + software = freeware; pulsating + star = pulsar; Hindi + English = Hinglish; motor + hotel = motel; information + entertainment = infotainment; medical + care = medicare; documentary + drama = docudrama; sea + landscape = seascape; breath + analyzer = breathalyzer ; camera + recorder = camcorder ; parachute + trooper = paratrooper and so on and on and on.
There is even a country name which is a portmanteau word because it was formed by combining two separate countries into one! Tanganyika + Zanzibar = Tanzania!
At times, rarely though, the spelling of the newly formed word takes on new letters, not found in either of the parent words, due to their pronunciation, as in, picture + element = pixel;
There are not so well-known portmanteau words too, such as, chuckle + snort = chortle; channel + tunnel = chunnel; fantastic + fabulous = fantabulous; gasoline + alcohol = gasohol; splash + surge = splurge; spoon + fork = spork; man + animal = manimal and so on.
My request to all interested members: If you come across rare portmanteau words, please do post them, for the benefit of all!
