Юлия СпероффThere are words in the English language called portmanteaus, which combine the sounds and meanings of two words. The interesting thing is, many people don’t realize that the words they use every day are those hybrid words! Some portmanteaus have been around for a long time, such as «motel» (motor + hotel = motel, a hotel for people who are travelling by car, often located on the side of a road), while others have only been added to the dictionary fairly recently, such as «hangry» (hungry + angry = hangry, a feeling of anger which some people get when they haven’t eaten anything). Here’s a list of some more portmanteaus:
Frenemy = friend + enemy. Somebody who is officially your friend but doesn’t always act in your best interests. I first learned this word while watching Sex and the City (Frenemies is the title of Episode 16, Season 3).
Brunch = breakfast + lunch. A brunch is a meal eaten late in the morning (or in the early afternoon) which combines foods that are traditional both for breakfast and lunch. Usually people have long brunches with friends at the weekend, especially on Sunday. Brunches are often accompanied by a cocktail called Mimosa.
Glamping = glamour + camping. Glamping describes camping that is more comfortable and luxurious than a typical camping experience of sleeping in a tent in a forest. The word glamping was added to dictionaries in 2016 and it has been a popular trend in travel in the recent years.
Shopaholic / Workaholic. The «holic» part of these words is taken from the word«alcoholic» and as such, means «addicted to something». Shopaholics are addicted to shopping, and workaholics are addicted, you guessed it, to work.
Bromance = brother + romance. Describes a close relationship between two male friends. If you ever watched the TV show Scrubs, JD and Turk are a perfect example of bromance.
If you want to look at more examples of portmanteaus , here’s a list of 86 of them!
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