General Question

makemo's avatar

What's the appropriate term for words, made up of a mix between two or more words?

Asked by makemo (531points) April 15th, 2008

What is the term for when you mix 2 or more words together, making a new, fictitious word? For example; newtopia, desktastic (bad examples, I know, but you get the idea).

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9 Answers

nikipedia's avatar

Neologism?

nikipedia (28095points)“Great Answer” (4points) Flag as…
wildflower's avatar

BS or buzzwords

wildflower (11180points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…
soundedfury's avatar

Nik is correct.

soundedfury (2543points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…
jz1220's avatar

Portmanteau

jz1220 (829points)“Great Answer” (9points) Flag as…
jaeger's avatar

Portmanteau is the correct answer!

Neologism is the creation of a new word.

jaeger (164points)“Great Answer” (2points) Flag as…
soundedfury's avatar

Er…, yeah, I was wrong. Damnit. My linguistic profs are rolling in their graves.

soundedfury (2543points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…
tupara's avatar

Useless fact for the day : the name ‘portmanteau’, used to describe these new words, was invented by Lewis Carrol in his book ‘Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There’. Humpty Dumpty uses it when describing words like ‘Slithy’ in the Jabberwocky poem.

tupara (637points)“Great Answer” (3points) Flag as…
nlaeditor's avatar

Portmanteau is correct.

nlaeditor (27points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…
Zen's avatar

You are all so flutherful!

Zen (7748points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…

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