Portmanteaux, Combining Two Words To Make One

Basically, it’s taking the prefix of one, the suffix of another and making one word: fantabulous, ridonculous, mandal, turducken, Internet, advertainment, etc. Where do these words come from and why?

Colloquialisms and slang have been around forever, and represent niches in the community. The military has them and teenagers have them. They are not new.

We use these combination words because they represent new feelings and situations. McJobs and McMansions represent two ideas — jobs or mansions plus the predominance and sameness that a restaurant like McDonald’s represents. So the new word, McJobs represents the idea of many jobs that are all the same.

New words like skort or spork represent new items. A skort is a combination skirt/short item of clothing. A spork is a combination spoon/fork utensil. McJobs and McMansions represent old items — jobs and mansions that are now rampant and boring — all the same. There is a negative connotation to these words. With one word, McMansion, someone can get across the idea that they are talking about a large home that looks like all the other large homes in the neighborhood. That’s why these words gain popularity. They save time and express more than one idea quickly.