Mixing words
Mia overheard her mother making plans with her friend one day. They hadn’t seen each other in a long time and decided to meet over brunch. Mia was puzzled, what is brunch? Is it something you eat? She decided to ask her mother, who explained that the word brunch is made from two words and their meanings – breakfast and lunch, hence brunch! It is a meal that is usually had a after the normal breakfast time and before the usual lunchtime.
‘Brunch’, in this case, is called a portmanteau, pronounced “port-man-tow”. It is a new word made from two words and their meanings. Here’s a few other examples:
– Edutainment is the combination of education + entertainment, and it means entertainment meant to inform its viewers.
– Smog is the combination of smoke + fog and refers to really polluted air that has a combination of both.
Here’s an activity for you try figure out some portmanteaus.