Portmanteau

A portmanteau (/pɔrtˈmæntoʊ/, /ˌpɔrtmænˈtoʊ/; plural /ˌpɔrtmænˈtoʊz/ portmanteaus or portmanteaux) or portmanteau word is a linguistic blend of words, in which parts of multiple words, or their phones (sounds), and their meanings are combined into a new word. ""Portmanteau"" is a suitcase that opens into two equal sections.A portmanteau word fuses both the sounds and the meanings of its components, as in smog, coined by blending smoke and fog, or motel, from motor and hotel. In linguistics, a portmanteau is defined as a single morph which represents two or more morphemes. The definition overlaps with the grammatical term contraction, but a distinction can be made between a portmanteau and a contraction by noting that contractions are formed from words that would otherwise appear together in sequence, such as do and not, whereas a portmanteau word is formed by combining two or more existing words that all relate to a singular concept which the portmanteau describes. Portmanteau should also be distinguished from compounds, which do not involve the truncation of parts of the stems of the blended words. For instance, starfish is a compound, not a portmanteau, of star and fish (a hypothetical portmanteau of these words might be stish).