The English language is impressively rich, as anyone with an eye on new words will tell you. New words appear by any of a number of different methods — adding a prefix or suffix to an existing word, making a verb for a noun or naming a verb, or — loving everyone’s favorite — combine two existing words together. mixas they are called, created by combining words or parts of other words, like brunch from breakfast And lunch.
Wait, some of you are saying, don’t you mean “portmanteau”?
Yes Yes. Portmanteau also works, but it’s not a term commonly used by lexicographers and linguists.
We’ll give you some time to recover from the shock. (Or should we say… a ‘shoment’? No, we shouldn’t.)
Portmanteau there are some points in its favor. It sounds more fanciful mix (it’s from Middle French portersmeans “carry” and cloak, meaning “mantle”); it has a weird plural spelling option portmanteaux; and it precedes the proper use of mix from 40 years or more. However, it also came from the mouth of an innocently fragile egg explaining something to a confused seven-year-old. slippery And childish mean.
Before Humpty Dumpty used Harbor for a word created by combining other words or parts of words in Lewis Carroll’s 1871 Through the mirrorthis word—as Mr. Dumpty explains—refers to a large suitcase (and especially one with two main compartments): slipperyis, he told Alice, “like a portmanteau—two meanings in one word.”
Mix or Harbor: you can use either. This type of word is not new, but such words did not really appear until the 20th century, when motel, guessand their ilks started appearing in the dictionary. While some of the mixes are quite serious—alkyd And delay, for example—most of them had a little chuckle and a wink at them, with the creator and us in a sort of collusion. A typical modern mix doesn’t take itself too seriously but it has a clear meaning, making it a kind of neoliberalism that can really have legs. Of course, such words must prove themselves like any other neoliberalism before we consider them for inclusion. In the meantime, we just relax and see how they do.
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
