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What are they?
Two recent items that challenge the borders of categories in the world of art, literature, and humor: another Jane Austen quote (yes, Chris Ambidge keeps sending them on); and an e-card (passed on by...
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On the foodmanteau front
Now from Taco Bell, a hybrid food with a hybrid (portmanteau) name. You can critique the food — a double-Mexican combo, of quesadilla and burrito — or the name (Quesarito, which strikes me as...
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Layered portmanteaus
Today’s Bizarro: A labradoodle performing magic: abracadabra [the magical incantation] + labradoodle = abracadabradoodle. But labradoodle is itself a portmanteau: labrador (retriever) + poodle. There...
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Hybrid dishes and foodmanteaus
From the 7/12/14 Economist, this feature: “Matches made in heaven—and hell: What do you get if you cross a waffle with a doughnut? It’s no joke”, beginning: Not all marriages are happy, but Alex...
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POP goes the taxi
Yesterday’s Rhymes With Orange: A POP — phrasal overlap portmanteau — combining the clipped compound mani-pedi (a manicure plus a pedicure; see here) and the compound pedicab ‘pedal-operated taxi’.
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Orcastra
Today’s Rhymes With Orange: Portmanteau: orca (aka killer whale) + orchestra. A wonderfully silly idea.
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geosocial
It starts with today’s Doonesbury – (#1) and ends with shirtless lycanthrophy. In between: Roland Hedley, III, the apps Tinder and Grindr (with some shirtlessness), geosocial networking (aka...
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Commercial playful morphology
In television commercials that recently came past me: yummify (and more) in a 5-hour ENERGY commercial; and waffulicious in an IHOP commercial. yummify etc. On this site, a commercial exhorting us to...
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Two from Out
Yesterday, it was The Advocate; today, it’s another LPI publication, Out (or OUT) magazine, again with two pieces of interest for this blog in the latest (October 2014) issue: one on straightsplaining,...
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Morphology Friday 1: the portmanteau unicar
Today’s Zippy: (#1) Unicar is a portmanteau of unicycle and (subcompact) car, and Zippy’s Unicar is a hybrid of a unicycle and a minicar — so far as I know, a vehicle from Zippy’s fantasy world, not...
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A dogmanteau
From Chris Waigl on Facebook, this entertaining composition: [Corrected from an earlier version, with thanks to Chris W.] A complex portmanteau of labrador (retriever) + abracadabra (the magician’s...
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On the portmanteau beat
Today’s Zippy: A complex portmanteau in the last panel: marshmallegro has all of marshmallow and all of allegro in it (thus combining the otherwise disparate marshmallow-toasting and musical-tempo...
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Two for Thursday
Two cartoons this morning, a Rhymes With Orange and a Bizarro: (#1) (#2) A POP (phrasal overlap portmanteau) on a usage-peeve theme; and borrowed vocabulary put to slangy uses. The Rhymes. Grammar...
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Saturday trio
In today’s comics crop, a Zits on language and the sexes (once again), a Rhymes With Orange with language play, and a Bizarro metacartoon on the visual conventions of the comics: (#1) (#2) (#3) Love...
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Two cartoons and a parody
Two cartoons from the latest (December 2014) Funny Times (by Jen Sorenson and L.J. Kopf), plus a Eurythmics parody passed along on Facebook. Globola. The first panel of a Sorensen cartoon, with a...
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Word play, some of it uncomfortable
The “Back Talk: A Conversation About Words” column (by Ralph Keyes) in the American Scholar for Autumn 2014 takes up two topics: “E pluribus unum”, on invented portmanteaus submitted by readers (one of...
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Hanukkah play
Something about Hanukkah — this year, starting at sunset on December 16th — seems to invite word play, on the name of the holiday or on the name of its signature food, the latke, or potato pancake....
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Feuilleton: craplet
Come across in the December 6th Economist in a piece on jail-breaking mobile phones: “Others have done so to get rid of all the annoying craplets installed by their carrier.” The portmanteau craplet...
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Idioms
A Wrong Hands cartoon by John Atkinson, from 9/18/12: (#1) What happens when you take idioms literally. Atkinson is new to this blog. His Wrong Hands website is not at all informative about him, except...
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Lapkins
Thanks to Victor Steinbok, I know that there’s a Hater’s Guide to the Williams-Sonoma Catalog, 2014 edition by Drew Magary here. The company is an “Upscale chain offering high-end cookware, house-label...
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