Mwalimu-G
Elder Lister
A portmanteau is two words smushed together to make a new word that combines the meaning of the original two. Think “brunch” or “fucktard.” These frankenwords (that’s one right there) give you more meaning with less wordz! It’s a little like New Speak, but way better suited to comedy and debasement. This is just a guesstimate (another one), but there are way more than 50 good ones so add your own in the comments, dear readers. We promise, less words from here on out.
NOTE: We’re not even going to dignify celebrity name mashups or NYC neighborhoods that a realtor shat out with a place on the list because they’re that terrible. Not that you could or should call this a dignified list. Click on for 50 great portmanteaus that have changed the way we live life in the modern world.
Webinar
What Makes Up the Name: web + seminar
This is a prime example of portmanteaus gone awry. It’s just a video with someone explaining something that no one wanted to actually sit in a room and listen to so the speaker tries to give it gravitas by giving it a portmanteau name. Also, by saying web instead of Internet it makes us think you use dial-up still and combining that with a seminar makes us so bored we’re already looking at porn instead of paying attention. The only good thing about a webinar is that you don’t have to wear clothes to watch it. That didn’t take long, we’re only on the first one and we’re already naked, watching porn. Oh, Internet.
Origin: Once the web got powerful enough to realistically stream video and simultaneous chats in the mid aughts, the webinar was the logical next step for educators moving in to the digital age. The original coinage was probably around 2004 or 2005, but it really made a splash in usage and news stories in 2007. By 2008 it was widely reviled.
Pornado
What Makes Up the Name: porn + tornado
Then your roommate walks in and you’re all, “Oh, hey,” falling out of your chair, ass rubbing everywhere as you trip over your pants that have now become the ankle chains they give maximum security inmates as your roommate tries to avert his eyes and asks if you're sitting bare-ass in his “favorite leather rolly chair” and you, overcome with the vision of poo streaks and shame, cover your member with one hand and reach up with the other to close the cascading windows of porn pop-ups that have turned your monitor into one big, moaning fleshy pixel orgy, and all you can do is smile and ask him how work was. That’s getting caught in a pornado, class four: uncontrollable porn spam windows take over your screen at a highly inopportune time. You should see a class five.
Origin: It was first posted on the Urban Dictionary in 2004, so who knows. It probably appeared about the same time browsers started getting jacked up by porn sites in the 90s.
www.complex.com
NOTE: We’re not even going to dignify celebrity name mashups or NYC neighborhoods that a realtor shat out with a place on the list because they’re that terrible. Not that you could or should call this a dignified list. Click on for 50 great portmanteaus that have changed the way we live life in the modern world.
Webinar
What Makes Up the Name: web + seminar
This is a prime example of portmanteaus gone awry. It’s just a video with someone explaining something that no one wanted to actually sit in a room and listen to so the speaker tries to give it gravitas by giving it a portmanteau name. Also, by saying web instead of Internet it makes us think you use dial-up still and combining that with a seminar makes us so bored we’re already looking at porn instead of paying attention. The only good thing about a webinar is that you don’t have to wear clothes to watch it. That didn’t take long, we’re only on the first one and we’re already naked, watching porn. Oh, Internet.
Origin: Once the web got powerful enough to realistically stream video and simultaneous chats in the mid aughts, the webinar was the logical next step for educators moving in to the digital age. The original coinage was probably around 2004 or 2005, but it really made a splash in usage and news stories in 2007. By 2008 it was widely reviled.
Pornado
What Makes Up the Name: porn + tornado
Then your roommate walks in and you’re all, “Oh, hey,” falling out of your chair, ass rubbing everywhere as you trip over your pants that have now become the ankle chains they give maximum security inmates as your roommate tries to avert his eyes and asks if you're sitting bare-ass in his “favorite leather rolly chair” and you, overcome with the vision of poo streaks and shame, cover your member with one hand and reach up with the other to close the cascading windows of porn pop-ups that have turned your monitor into one big, moaning fleshy pixel orgy, and all you can do is smile and ask him how work was. That’s getting caught in a pornado, class four: uncontrollable porn spam windows take over your screen at a highly inopportune time. You should see a class five.
Origin: It was first posted on the Urban Dictionary in 2004, so who knows. It probably appeared about the same time browsers started getting jacked up by porn sites in the 90s.
The Art of the Portmanteau: 50 Modern Word Mashups in Pop Culture
Fifty new words that have helped us change the way we text, do business, and get dumber-er with each day. Check it.
