Blending/Portmanteau Words

There are several and nearly fixed ways, which give new words a chance to live along with old ones in every language. One of these ways is "blending". In blending, two or more function words blend to form a new word. The new word, thus, is called a portmanteau.

I have chosen this topic intentionally because I want to share some new and somehow odd blending examples with you. If you try to memorize them, you can add some new pieces of information to your wordrobe. What does "wordrobe" mean? It means a person's vocabulary [blend of word and wardrobe].

My next example is "fantabulous" [Blend of fantastic and fabulous]. The idea of creating and developing podcats was fantabulous.

To me, "carjacking" is as dangerous as hijacking. "Carjacking" is a noun describing an incident by which a usually armed individual coerces the driver of an automobile to give up his vehicle or drive it and the assailant to some specified location.

I hate "baggravation". I do not want to feel it my life. Never ever. Baggravation [Blend of bag and aggravation] is a feeling of annoyance and anger one endures at the airport when his/her bags have not arrived at the baggage carousel but everyone else's bags have.

When something is extremely large, it is "ginormous". This word is the blend form of gigantic and enormous.

Remember when you hear an accident occur and later give a report on what you heard; you are an "earwitness" not an eyewitness.

Finally, I like to add that portmanteaux or portmanteaus are the plural forms of portmanteau.

Pimp your vocab quiz

Take the Pimp Your Vocab quiz to find out how in touch you are with the word on the street.

It is highly amazing that teenagers have their own jargon that is difficult to demystify.

What is your favorite teenglish word? Mine is chilax (chill out + relax).

Expand your vocabulary

It’s well documented that people with better vocabularies are more intelligent. So, why not give yourself a chance to expand your vocabulary. Here are the links to some fantastic online places that can help you integrate more words into your English:

Dictionary.com: A leading online dictionary, this site gets top spots for not only its word, but the audio pronunciation, quotes, and more.

SAT Tutor’s Blog: Click on “Word of the Day” to get advanced words for SAT test takers. There are also a ton of other vocabulary and language tools.

Word of the Day Website: Get a word of the day with a more personal touch here. There are also quizzes, weekly review, and more.

Today’s WORD on Journalism: A journalist takes words from publications and analyzes them in his posts.

What Does It Mean?: Infoplease gives several definitions on their word of the day. There are also tons of other tools including dictionary, thesaurus, Fact Monster, and more.

wordcount.org

The owner of wordcount laid out the words in a straight line, from the most frequently used to the least frequently used. The only thing you have to do is to look for specific English words you have in your mind to see their rankings.

Interestingly, the line is an 88,000-word-long sentence. If you have time to kill, try to explore the site more and more. Look for obscure words and find their rankings. You may be touched by how fun it is to know the rankings of the words you are interested in.

However, do not expect to find the rankings of new words such as "blog", "webmaster" and "google" there (in this case, my effort had not results). This is the only part of that long unusual sentence that may disappoint you a little. I wish you good luck exploring wordcount.

confusing words

Confusing Words is a collection of 3210 words that are troublesome to readers and writers. Words are grouped according to the way they are most often confused or misused.

etymologic

etymologic
the toughest word game on the web

ETYMOLOGIC is a web site that I have learned about recently. There, ten questions on word origin will be given to you randomly. You have to choose the right answer. It is called the toughest language game since it is totally difficult and mind-boggling to find the right answer as all the choices may seem plausible.

distemper, dis-temper, or this temper

I love translation, but I seldom immerse myself in it. But when I decide to translate an article, I translate it with vim and vigor.To be honest, our translation classes at university were awful. Let me tell you a real story about our oral translation class.

One day our instructor brought a tape with herself and asked us to transcribe and then translate it. I listened to the tape and put down everything on my notebook. Something was wrong with a line in that text. The line, which knocked me for a loop, was this:

Her cat had been given its distemper shot.

Unaware of the real meaning of "distemper" and being lazy enough to look the word up in a dictionary, my instructor and classmates translated the word incorrectly. They thought the word meant "behaving badly". Do you get what I mean?

No one in the class paid heed to this mistranslation. During listening to the tape again and reviewing my notes for the exam, a question came to my head. Was it distemper, dis-temper, or this temper? The first one, of course, seemed to be the answer. And my trusty dictionary approved that.

Distemper: a serious infectious disease that affects animals.

Oscar Wilde once said it is always a very dangerous thing to tell a story with a moral. I cannot give the moral of this story a miss, however. Some translators, no matter where they come from or what their native language is, do not take translation very seriously. They do not want to thrash the problems of translation out. Please add the number of some students of translation and their teachers to the list.

Regards,

Zahra

Sports Glossaries

football glossary

soccer glossary

A glossary of ski terms

Badminton Glossary

Boomerang Glossary

Basketball Glossary

words about elections

Here is a list of words about elections. I hope you enjoy reading and learning them. Just remember, you will lose those words if you don't use them.

words for expressing dark colors

rich: dark and giving a pleasant feeling of comfort and warmth
example: I admired the warm, rich colors of her Persian rugs.

deep: deep colours are strong, dark, and attractive
example: She looked into his eyes. They were deep blue.

dark: dark colours are closer to black than to white
example: If you're going to have such dark walls I really think you should have a pale carpet.

ghost-related words and expressions

Do you believe in ghosts? Do you like reading ghost stories? Me? Hmmm… I do like reading ghost stories. Are you familiar with words or expression in English, which are somehow related to ghosts or are about them? If not, let's learn something new today.

Spooky: A house, which is spooky, makes you feel strange.
You may think there are some ghosts there.

Haunted: A place that is haunted has ghosts in it.
I know some guys who believe in haunted houses and witches on broomsticks. What about you?

Ghostly: It means like a ghost. You may hear ghostly laughter in haunted houses.

Apparition: An image of a dead person that you see suddenly.
If you see an apparition on your way to home, for sure you will give up the ghost.

To give up the ghost means to die. It also means to stop trying.

Poltergeist: A type of ghosts that moves objects and often causes damage.
Do not get afraid. These kinds of ghosts do not really exist. You can find them just in literature.

A ghost of a chance: a poor chance, not likely to happen
Ben's new car does not have a ghost of a chance. It is too slow.

The ghost at the feast: something or someone that spoils your enjoyment by making you remember something unpleasant.

I am sure that my note was not the ghost at the feast. Since, today you did learn something. Have fun.

Crime-Related Words

Arson: Act of setting fire on something intentionally.

Manslaughter: The brutal or violent killing of a great number of people or animals.

Ransom: The freeing of a captive on payment.

Forgery: The alteration or false making of a writing

Burglary: to break into a house to steal.

Robbery: the taking of the property of another in his presence.

Homicide: the killing of a person by another person.

Murder: the killing of a person by another person.

Kidnapping: to steal a person in order to obtain a ransom.

Pickpocketing: Stealing money, wallet, etc, from someone's pocket.

Massacre: Cruel killing of a large number of people or occasionally of animals.

the difference between "adverse" and "averse"

Both words may be used as adjectives. "Adverse" means unfavorable, acting against, or hostile to. "Averse" means disinclined, unwilling, reluctant, or opposed to. "Averse" does not carry the notion of threat or harm that "adverse" does.
"Adverse" comes from the Latin, "to turn (against)". "Averse" has the same etymology.

Vocabulary Training Exercises Online

http://www.vokabel.com

This is a good address to test your vocabulary via internet. English, German, French and Spanish is provided in each combination.