# The Portmanteau Era **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 4, 2020, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-portmanteau-era/919764 "2020-09-04T01:42:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-portmanteau-era/919764/1 "2020-09-04T01:42:26Z")
Fifty or so years ago, it was the Age of the Acronym. New acronyms were everywhere in massive quantities. Some people still found them unusual. OK, acronyms are still happening, and we don’t even think twice about them. They’re routine, common, everyday things. We coin them on the fly and no one notices. These days, all the cool coinages are portmanteaus. In the Google News headlines today I saw two I hadn’t encountered before: coronasomnia and twindemic. How long is it going to be before that’s also routine? I suspect it’s not long. For some people it may already be here. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-portmanteau-era/919764/2 "2020-09-04T02:39:14Z")
I feel like it got super popular when “Brangelina” became a thing. After that, other couples had their names smashed together by the media because it was funny, then it wasn’t funny and it was just what you did and it carried over into other parts of our lives. Community did this a lot as well. Compulsault, explainabrag, copera, just about every thing Chang or the dean said (though I’m not sure if those count). ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-portmanteau-era/919764/3 "2020-09-04T03:02:18Z")
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t splicing words together into unholy abominations. Is it now a “thing”? I haven’t really noticed. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-portmanteau-era/919764/4 "2020-09-04T03:32:32Z")
Portmanteaus themselves are not new at all. Lewis Carroll coined the term for them in Through the Looking-glass, which was published in 1871. But he didn’t come up with the concept, There’s a few that pre-date him by quite a while. They’re just more and more common these days. And yeah, maybe the modern trend started with portmanteauing celebrity couples, which was when, early '00s? Somewhere around there. But I’m old enough to remember when it wasn’t very common to create them. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-portmanteau-era/919764/5 "2020-09-04T18:59:37Z")
It’s like we’ve entered a new portmantera. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-portmanteau-era/919764/6 "2020-09-04T20:59:25Z")
The early Time magazine had a mania for bizarre portmanteau words. Probably lasted a couple of decades from its start in the 1920s until after WWII. Cinemactor and cinemactress were used regularly, but so were Broadwayfarer and eccentrician. Other magazines copied them at times, so the pre-WWII era is a peak in the portmanteau timeline. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-portmanteau-era/919764/7 "2020-09-04T23:44:52Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > These days, all the cool coinages are portmanteaus. In the Google News headlines today I saw two I hadn’t encountered before: coronasomnia and twindemic. How long is it going to be before that’s also routine? I find them challenging, in a good way. They’re a puzzle. Corona + somnia is…? You can’t sleep because you’re worried about the pandemic? Twindemic? Hmm. Spike in twin births? IDK. About 20 years ago the Atlantic had a “Word Watch” column. Not all were portmanteaux spange: [Spange Definition & Meaning | YourDictionary](https://www.yourdictionary.com/spange) trustafarian: > **[What is a trustafarian?](https://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/financial-planning/what-is-a-trustafarian.htm)** > > There have always been wealthy kids living off money they've inherited, but a trustafarian is a rich kid like none other. So who are these trustafarians and where did the term come from? anticipointment: [anticipointment - Wiktionary, the free dictionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anticipointment) I used to have the book. [https://www.amazon.com/Word-Watch-Stories-Behind-Words/dp/0805045449](https://www.amazon.com/Word-Watch-Stories-Behind-Words/dp/0805045449) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-portmanteau-era/919764/8 "2020-09-05T01:15:08Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > Corona + somnia is…? You can’t sleep because you’re worried about the pandemic? Pretty sure that’s the meaning. > [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > Twindemic? Hmm. Spike in twin births? Nah, it’s people getting COVID and flu at the same time. Note: I didn’t read either of the articles these were in the headlines of. . ETA: I do wonder what’s the earliest portmanteau in English. So far I have squiggle = squirm + wiggle, which dates to about 1815. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-portmanteau-era/919764/9 "2020-09-05T01:31:39Z")
These are formally known as blend words. They are formed in many languages, both deliberately the way Lewis Carroll did and through casual speech. The former go [way back](https://www.grin.com/document/232366). > _For example Robert Greene used in 1592 in his book The Defence of Conny Catching the word foolosophy which is a blending from foolish and philosophy. In the seventeenth century Samuel Purchas mentioned the word knavigation, a knavish navigation (Pilgrimage, 1613)._ ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-portmanteau-era/919764/10 "2020-09-05T02:05:58Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Nah, it’s people getting COVID and flu at the same time. DOH! But…well played. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-portmanteau-era/919764/11 "2020-09-05T17:02:07Z")
I am confuddled. Could someone please mansplain to me what this is all about? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-portmanteau-era/919764/12 "2020-09-05T22:22:40Z")
Just a comment on the portmandemic (or is it an epimanteau?) we’re suffering from. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-portmanteau-era/919764/13 "2020-09-05T22:58:04Z")
And who could forget “affluenza?” > **[Ethan Couch, who killed four people in 'affluenza' case, arrested again in...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/02/us/ethan-couch-affluenza-accused-of-probation-violation/index.html)** > > Ethan Couch, known for his "affluenza" defense in his deadly drunk driving case, was arrested Thursday in Texas, accused of violating his probation again, officials said. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-portmanteau-era/919764/14 "2020-09-06T12:01:23Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I am confuddled. Could someone please mansplain to me what this is all about? You win the thread!