English Language, as the cliché goes, is dynamic. The language has
asserted its superiority by its accommodative attitude to adopt and adapt to
other languages. This dynamism makes it ever esoteric to its detractors but fun
to the language nerds.
Every day, thousands of new words are formed. These words may be
entirely new or evolve from existing words. Formation of new words is termed
neologism. Neologists, word creators, fundamentally are the erythrocytes that
keep the veins of dictionaries ever functional. It takes a great deal of
passion and learning at the language to be able to neologise. At least, your
appreciation of syntax dynamics, word morpheme and morphology should be of a
certain degree or pedigree.
Let's shift focus to the topic of the day. It's an aspect of
neologism referred to as Portmanteau (words).
Portmanteau word is one formed by combining two words and their
meaning. The joint parts are usually the morphemes of the words involved.
Portmanteau words are used to produce a combined effect of precision, clarity
and art.
The dictionary can't be revised every day to accommodate the
fattening girth of portmanteau words. Until recently "fantabulous"
was conspicuously missing in many dictionaries of Ivy League standards.
Nonetheless, portmanteau words abound in the dictionary. There are a
lot that are unscripted too especially those of merely regional penetration.
An example is "muganomics" (Mugabe + Economics), a word
that's overly used in Zimbabwe.
Before we move to evolving morphologically acceptable portmanteaus,
let's take a look at some baptised portmanteaus that have gained recognition in
standard lexicons.
* Motel - motor + hotel, a motel is a small budget hotel for
motorist usually located at the periphery of cities or towns.
* Fantabulous - fantastic + fabulous, fantabulous as word represents
an idea of impressive monumentality.
* Guestimate - guess + estimate, guestimate is an estimate that
combines reasoning with guessing. For example, "Can you guestimate the
price of a cement bag following the increment in petroleum products." The
logophobic will prefer "educated guess".
* Brunch - breakfast + lunch, brunch is a breakfast and lunch meal
taking at the same time. It is usually taken closer to lunch time. For example,
"I took brunch at 10 am today."
Other portmanteau words include edutainment, infomercial,
televangelist, netizen (internet + citizen), ginormous (gigantic + enormous),
dancercise, religulous (religion + ridiculous), Oxbridge etc.
Now let's look at our own daily portmanteau words.
First, "shockprise", shock + surprise, has come to stay.
This word is now extensively used in daily communications particularly on the
social media platform. Trust me, the coming into existence of the word has
brought reprieve to lazy bones and clumsy fingers on the keypad.
Pastorpreneur, pastor + entrepreneur, has reached formal usage in
many circles in Nigeria. David Oyedepo and his ilk have made pastoral work as
business entities to fleece their congregation to affluence. The church has
become a business enterprise where many young folks in Nigeria move into as
mere entrepreneurs to make money rather than preachers of the Word. The story
is not very different in our own backyard so far as the Church is concerned.
Smartronics, smart + electronics, the 21st century is seeing a
tremendous change from dumb electronics to smart electronics. A lot of
impossible ideas have become real under the auspices of smart electronics. Now
you can even check your weight by standing on your smart phone. Try it.
Gayrriage, gay + marriage, is now common in usage with the
ascendancy of gay marriage in our society. Okoampa Ahoofe Jnr, a creative
writing professor and an NPP hardliner has claimed ownership to word in most of
his write-ups even though I couldn't confirm it with the almighty Urban
Dictionary.
Other evolving portmanteau words include shockmentary, blaccent
(black + accent), Twiglish (Twi + English).
A forte in portmanteau words will certainly give one an elevated
podium to communicate and play with words succinctly amidst thrilling
"their" audience.
As usual, it is time for the word game. So, give me your portmanteau
word.
I will start
Dickenspeare, Dickens + Shakespeare: "I'm an avid consumer of
Dickenspeare works."
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