Suitcase Words -Portmanteaus

Anyone who knows the history of the Wicked Witch of West Texas is aware that during her Wickidity training she created some very obfuscative, or even confusing, portmanteaus. But, you may be wondering, "What the heck is a portmanteau, and why do we call it that?" Well, here's a little looksee at the term portmanteau and its origin. (In the future we will be posting an ongoing Wicktionary, or a Wicked dictionary, of the portmanteaus the WWWT created for her portmanteau primary.)

A Portmanteau is a suitcase, but it's also a kind of word. Lewis Carroll invented the concept of packing together more than one word (as if they were stuffed together into a suitcase) to combine their meanings into a new word. A commonly used example is "brunch," which is a meal served later than breakfast and earlier than lunch which comes with a slice of cantaloupe.

Here is a poem by Carroll called the Jaberwocky, for which you may want to consult this glossary to discover his meanings.

Jaberwocky

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought--
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.