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Added 10 October 2026

portmanteau

/pɔːtˈmæn.təʊ/ noun

In Latin: averta Coined: a coined word Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about portmanteau at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings.
`smog' is a blend of `smoke' and `fog'
A large travelling bag made of stiff leather.

Origin

From Middle French portemanteau (“coat stand”), from porte (“he carries”, third-person singular present indicative of porter (“to carry”)) + manteau (“coat”), literally “[that which] carries coat”. The lexical sense (sense 2) was first used figuratively by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass (1871) to describe the words he coined in the poem “Jabberwocky”, based on the concept of two words packed together, similar to a portmanteau (etymology). Sense 3 (“portmanteau film”) is derived from this.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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