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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Portmanteau (disambiguation).

A portmanteau (ⁱ/pɔːrtˈmæntoʊ/, /ˌpɔːrtmænˈtoʊ/; plural portmanteaus or portmanteaux /-ˈtoʊz/) or portmanteau word is a linguistic blend of words,^[1] in which parts of multiple words, or their phones (sounds), and their meanings are combined into a new word.^[1][2][3] Originally, the word "portmanteau" refers to a suitcase that opens into two equal sections.

A portmanteau word fuses both the sounds and the meanings of its components, as in smog, coined by blending smoke and fog,^[2][4] or motel, from motor and hotel.^[5] In linguistics, a portmanteau is defined as a single morph which represents two or moremorphemes.^[6][7][8][9]

The definition overlaps with the grammatical term contraction, but contractions are formed from words that would otherwise appear together in sequence, such as do and not to make don't, whereas a portmanteau word is formed by combining two or more existing words that all relate to a singular concept which the portmanteau describes.

A portmanteau should also be distinguished from a compound, which does not involve the truncation of parts of the stems of the blended words. For instance, starfish is a compound, not a portmanteau, of star and fish; whereas a hypothetical portmanteau of starand fish might be stish.