portmanteau
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portmanteau
- /pɔːtˈmæn.təʊ/ UK
- /pɔɹtˈmæn.toʊ/ US
- /ˌpɔɹt.mænˈtoʊ/ US
Rhymes with -æntəʊ, -əʊ
Where it comes from
From Middle French portemanteau (“coat stand”), from porte (“he carries”, third-person singular present indicative of porter (“to carry”)) + manteau (“coat”), literally “[that which] carries coat”.
The lexical sense (sense 2) was first used figuratively by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass (1871) to describe the words he coined in the poem “Jabberwocky”, based on the concept of two words packed together, similar to a portmanteau (etymology). Sense 3 (“portmanteau film”) is derived from this.
noun portmanteaus · portmanteaux
- A large travelling case usually made of leather, and opening into two equal sections. A Rover tooke him unprepared, / Search't his Port-mantua, bound him faſter, / And ſent him naked to his Maſter: […]
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A word formed by putting two words together and thereby their meaning.
Well, ‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy.’ ‘Lithe’ is the same as ‘active.’ You see it’s like a portmanteau⸺there are two meanings packed up into one word.
Similar: portmanteau word, blend, blend word, lexical blend, amalgamation, brunch word, frankenword, portmantologism, telescope word
- A portmanteau film. We're so bombarded with images, it's a struggle to preserve our imaginations.' In response, he's turned to cinema, commissioning 11 film-makers to contribute to a portmanteau film, entitled '11'09"01' and composed of short films each running 11 minutes, nine seconds and one frame.
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A schoolbag.
Similar: port, school port
- A hook on which to hang clothing. But before I started that long and rather far-fetched and not frightfully original digression, what I meant to say quite simply was that there are no portmanteaux to be examined here because the clientele of this café, ladies and gentlemen, does not sit down.
adjective
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Made by combining two (or more) words, stories, etc., in the manner of a linguistic portmanteau.
The overall narrator of this portmanteau story - for Dickens co-wrote it with five collaborators on his weekly periodical, All the Year Round - expresses deep, rational scepticism about the whole business of haunting.
Similar: blend
verb portmanteaus · portmanteauing · portmanteaued · portmanteau'd
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To create a portmanteau word.
Similar: blend
Translations
Talk about this word "portmanteau." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/portmanteau. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. portmanteau. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/portmanteau "portmanteau." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/portmanteau.Cite this
@misc{portmanteau_2026,
title = {portmanteau},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/portmanteau},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
