portmaneuver

A portmanteau is a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two other words. The term itself is a portmanteau, derived from "port" and "manteau," referring to a large traveling bag that was often used to carry multiple items. In linguistics, a portmanteau word is created by merging parts of two or more words to form a new, single word with a combined meaning. This process is also known as blending.

Common examples of portmanteaus include "brunch" (breakfast + lunch), "smog" (smoke + fog), and "motel" (motor + hotel). These words are not simply compounds, where two independent words are joined together (like "bedroom"). Instead, parts of the original words are truncated and then fused. The creation of portmanteaus is a productive process in language, often arising organically from colloquial speech and then becoming widely accepted into dictionaries. They can be a concise and sometimes playful way to express a concept that would otherwise require a longer phrase. The effectiveness of a portmanteau lies in its ability to convey the essence of both source words in a single, memorable unit.