Have you ever accidentally made up a word by merging two words together? While what you said might not be in the dictionary, there is such a thing as two distinctly different words blending together to create a new term. It is called a portmanteau.

The term itself is a combination of the French words porter (to carry) and manteau (cloak), which describes a suitcase with two sections inside. Author Lewis Carroll redefined the term after using word combinations in his book Through the Looking Glass: “You see it’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word.”

Here are some popular examples.

• Smog = smoke + fog
• Brunch = breakfast + lunch
• Newscast = news + broadcast
• E-commerce = electronic + commerce
• Email = electronic + mail
• Ginormous = gigantic + enormous
• Hi-tech = high + technology
• Internet = international + network
• Modem = Modulator + Demodulator
• Interpol = international + police
• Podcast = iPod + broadcasting
• Blog = web + log
• Soundscape = sound + landscape
• Laundromat = laundry + automat

You probably recognize a lot of these words, maybe even use them on a daily basis, but did not realize they were portmanteaus.

Now that you know what portmanteau words are, how many others can you think of?