List of portmanteaux - Definition and Overview

This is a partial list of portmanteaux or "blends" — words formed by combining two other words, in the English language.

General

• affluenza from affluence and influenza
• anacronym from anachronism and acronym
• avionics from aviation and electronics

• backronym from back and acronym
• blaxploitation from black and exploitation
• blaccent from black and accent - used of non-blacks who try to sound black
• bleen from blue and green (coined by Nelson Goodman to illustrate Goodman's paradox)
• Bootylicious from booty and delicious - a title of a Destiny's Child song
• boxercise from boxing and exercise
• brunch from breakfast and lunch

• cafetorium from cafeteria and auditorium; a room, usually in a school, used for both purposes; see also gymnatorium.
• Californicate from California and fornicate
• camcorder from camera and recorder
• caplet from capsule and tablet
• carboloy from carbon and alloy
• chortle from chuckle and snort (coined by Lewis Carroll)
• Chunnel from Channel and tunnel
• cocacolonization from Coca-Cola and colonization
• cryptex from cryptology and codex
• cyborg from cybernetic and organism

• Diamat from Dialectical Materialism
• digipeater from digital and repeater
• dramedy from drama and comedy

• ebonics from ebony and phonics
• ecoteur from ecological and saboteur

• faction from fact and fiction
• fantabulous from fantastic and fabulous
• folksonomy from folk + taxonomy
• foon from fork and spoon (see also spork, below)
• Franglais from français (French for "French") and anglais (French for "English") (see also —lish, below)
• frankenfood from Frankenstein and food
• frankenword from Frankenstein and word

• galumph from gallop and triumph
• ginormous from gigantic and enormous
• grue from green and blue (see bleen, above)
• guesstimate from guess and estimate
• gymnatorium from gymnasium and auditorium; a room, usually in a school, used for both purposes; see also cafetorium)

• hasbian from has been and lesbian

• infomercial from information and commercial

• Jazzercise from jazz and exercise

• knork from knife and fork - a fork with an outer tine sharpened slightly to enhance the cutting ability of the tine

• —lish used as a suffix to form many frankenwords meaning foreign varieties of English (see also Franglais, above):
  • Chinglish (Chinese)
  • Germlish or Denglish (German)
  • Hebrish (Hebrew)
  • Hinglish (Hindi)
  • Japlish (Japanese)
  • Konglish (Korean)
  • Malglish (Malaysian)
  • Russlish (Russian)
  • Singlish (Singaporean)
  • Spanglish (Spanish)
  • Swedlish (Swedish)
• lupper from lunch and supper

• mantastic from man and fantastic
• meld from melt and weld
• mingy from mean and stingy
• mobisode from mobile (phone) and episode
• mockney from mock and Cockney
• mockumentary from mock and documentary
• moped from motor and pedal
• motel from motor and hotel

• Oxbridge from Oxford and Cambridge

• pizzone from pizza and calzone (popularized by Pizza Hut)
• pomato from potato and tomato
• posistor from positive and thermistor
• prequel from pre— and sequel
• procrasturbate from procrastinate and masturbate.

Usually means "to delay simply because it feels good", occasionally "to indulge in unnecessary, self-involved pedantry". From the broader definitions of masturbatory as simply "pleasurable", or sometimes "excessively self-involved".

• prosumer from either producer or professional and consumer

• Republicrat or Demopublican from Republican and Democrat (or vice versa)
• rockumentary from rock and documentary (also mockumentary, from mock and documentary)

• sexcellent from sex and excellent
• sexercise from sex and exercise
• sexploitation from sex and exploitation
• Sexplosion! from sexual and explosion (a TKK album)
• simulcast from simultaneous and broadcast
• skort from skirt and short (as in short pants)
• smaze from smoke and haze
• smog from smoke and fog
• soundscape from sound and landscape
• spork from spoon and fork
• sportscast from sports and broadcast
• squiggle from squirm and wiggle
• stagflation from stagnation and inflation
• swaption from swap and option

• tangelo from tangerine and pomelo
• teensploitation from teen and exploitation
• televangelist from television and evangelist
• terrist from Terra and terrorism
• Texican from Texan and Mexican
• thermistor from thermal and resistor
• toonie from two and loonie
• transistor from transfer and resistor
• triticale from triticum and secale (Latin for wheat and rye)
• twigloo from twig and igloo
• woon from wooden and spoon (flat wooden things for eating dished ice cream)

• yestergay from yesterday and gay

Internet and computing

• alphanumeric from alphabetic and numeric
• apronym from appropriate and acronym
• ASCIIbetical from ASCII and alphabetical
• automagic(al) from automatic and magic(al)
• bit from binary and digit
• codec from coder and decoder
• datacasting from data and broadcasting
• digerati from digital and literati
• emoticon from emotion and icon
• Internet from inter and network
• freeware from free and software
• knowledgebase from knowledge and database
• malware from malicious and software
• modem from modulator and demodulator
• netizen from (Inter)net and citizen
• netiquette from (Inter)net and etiquette (similarly, wikiquette)
• pixel from picture and element
• qubit from quantum and bit
• shareware from share and software
• smudgemate from smudge and estimate
• sysop from system and operator
• spamdexing from spam and indexing
• sporgery from spam and forgery
• voxel from volume and pixel

Marketing

• advertainment from advertising and entertainment
• advertorial from advertising and editorial
• cineplex from cinema and complex (building)
• docudrama from documentary and drama
• docusoap from documentary and soap opera (serialised drama)
• dramality from dramatic and reality (television)
• edutainment from education and entertainment
• fraudience from fraud and audience
• infomercial from information and commercial
• infotainment from information and entertainment
• Limon from lime + lemon; a commercial construction to promote the soft drink Sprite
• multiplex from multiple and cineplex! - this word has a different meaning in telecommunications

Art, literature and entertainment

• arfé from art and café
• Black To My Roots (a play) from black and "back to my roots"
• Bollywood from Bombay and Hollywood
• britcom from British and comedy (see also: sitcom)
• dancercise from dance and exercise
• dancersize from dance and circumsize, coined in jest on Fry and Laurie
• dramality from drama and reality television (coined by Mark Burnett to describe his television series Survivor)
• dubtitle from dub and subtitle, for subtitles transcribed from dubbed soundtrack, especially in anime
• Kripkenstein from Kripke and Wittgenstein, coined to describe a philosophical position that Kripke argued one could read into Wittgenstein's work, but which neither he nor Wittgenstein accepted.
• machinima from machine and cinema
• mathercise from mathematics and exercise, used by Mr. Morales to describe group aerobics involving shaping one's body into the specified equation.
• mockumentary from mock and documentary
• newrun from new and rerun - episode from a talk-show wherin old subjects are rehashed.
• Orgasmatron from orgasm and electron(ic) - from Woody Allen's Sleeper
• Policenauts from police and astronaut
• sacrilicious from sacrilege and delicious, used by Homer Simpson
• scanlation from scan and translation, used for unofficial internet-distributed translations of manga
• sitcom from situation and comedy
• smark from smart and mark - professional wrestling slang for fans who recognize the scripted nature of the business, but still enjoy the in-ring entertainment
• streetball from street and basketball
• threatmantic from threatening and romantic, used to describe threatening love notes

Organizations and companies

• Accenture from accent and future (accent on the future)
• Carborundum (original manufacturer of the abrasive, carborundum) from carbon and corundum.
• Compaq from computer, pack, and compact (to denote a small integral object)
• CONMEBOL from Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (Spanish for "South American Football Confederation")
• CONELRAD
• Debian from founder Ian Murdock and his wife Debra
• Edexcel from educational and excellence
• Intel from integrated and electronics
• Verizon from veritas (Latin for truth) and horizon
• Waitrose from founders' names Wallace Waite and Arthur Rose

Animals

• cockapoo from Cocker and poodle
• geep from goat and sheep
• liger from lion and tiger
• mog from man and dog (from the movie Spaceballs)
• tigon from tiger and lion
• turducken from turkey, duck, and chicken
• zeedonk from zebra and donkey

By Lewis Carroll in Jabberwocky

• burbled is not a portmanteau nor a coinage, but a legitimate dictionary word derived from the Middle English "burblen."

Politics and economics

• Reaganomics
• Rogernomics
• Rubinomics
• Ruthanasia

See also

• List of acronyms and initialisms