Word of the Day - 05/27/26
portmanteau
/poʊrt'mæntoʊ/(n.): a large travelling bag made of stiff leather
She carefully placed her delicate hat into the antique portmanteau, ready for the journey.
(n.): a new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings
The term 'brunch' is a perfect example of a portmanteau, merging breakfast and lunch into a single meal.
Word Origin
The word portmanteau comes from French, where porter means “to carry” and manteau means “cloak.” Originally, a portmanteau was a large traveling case with two compartments for carrying clothes. The literary sense was popularized by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass when he described words like “slithy” (from “slimy” and “lithe”) as being packed into one word “like a portmanteau.” Since then, the term has come to mean a word formed by blending parts of two other words.
Words with similar origins to portmanteau include broadcast, which once referred to the scattering of seeds; deadline, which originally denoted a boundary line in prisons during the American Civil War; and stereotype, which began as a term for a solid printing plate. In each case, a concrete physical meaning was later extended into a more abstract modern usage, following a pattern similar to the evolution of portmanteau.