portmanteau

I learned a new word recently and thought I'd share it with you. A portmanteau word is a blend of words in which parts of multiple words are combined into one new word. It is a single word representing two or more underlying morphemes. 

Lewis Carroll first introduced this in his sequel to Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass where our good old friend Humpty Dumpty explains this word to Alice to describe the dragon called the Jabberwocky. Slithy - slimy and lithe and mimsy - miserable and flimsy - a few ways we might describe someone we look at with scorn. He says and I quote;

In my drawing's case - brunch. A combination between breakfast and lunch - which is what I had today at a Hong Kong Cafe called So Good Char Chan Tang - basically breakfast for lunch but we'll call it brunch. The food was affordable and filling, but I'll probably do a more in-depth review in the future when I try out all their dim sum. My brother and I ordered two bowls of what I'd called Mild piquant macaroni and ham, which reminded us much of our primary school days - and I had the most exquisite spring roll in my life. No, I'm not exaggerating. The vegetables within the crunchy flaky roll tasted nectarous, cooked to perfection, and slathered with the right amount of sauce against its crisp skin. Heavenly. 

Anyway back to the word portmanteau - I've realized, whilst reading the meaning of said word, that it has evolved as social media developed - us as humans procuring and maybe creating more portmeantus words to explain certain terms to keep the language compact and succinct. Well, you're probably asking; "what the heck do you mean, Evelyn? You mean acronyms?"

No, I mean actual terms are that used nowadays like Email (Electronic + mail) to newer things like Netizen (Internet + Citizen).  Did you know there is a tech term called netiquette - basically internet and etiquette? It was born out of online message boards in the early 1990s and was first used in the New York Times in 1992 in an article written by William Grimes.

It is often wild to think that our lexicon continues to grow as the internet expands. We're surrounded by newfound words like such - and even though I get tickled by the idea that the word chillax is actually now in the Cambridge English dictionary, I am eager to see how many more words we create. I guess maybe it's a sign of evolution in its finest of ways. 

At the same time, I remain wary of textspeak - which in itself is sort of a portmanteau - because the lines between it and actual pop culture portmanteaus words are blurred. While textspeak has its pros - like getting to the point faster - goodbye small talk and lengthy intros - being "concise" in textspeak is not often a favorable thing. Perhaps not for all, but for me.

As a digital nomad, I find myself being unable to steer clear of textspeak. I find myself frantically trying to get my point across as fast as possible using the least amount of words as possible - even having anxiety because I see the other partner "typing" on my Whatsapp. My vocabulary is limited to social media speech and Tiktok terms, a vomit of whatever I have seen on the net. Without a doubt, I can safely say, it's ruined my literacy quite a bit. 

Hence here I am once more, working on my writing and spending more time reading, trying to digest the book without speed reading the whole thing in a day. I spend more time thinking about what I want to reply to my friend without using acronyms and attempting to form proper sentences instead of double - triple texting short succinct ones. 

All is well, however. Sometimes maybe we just need a brunch break.

x

evelyn