Was an orange ever a "norange"? | PORTMANTEAUS & WORD MASHUPS

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  • čas pƙidĂĄn 20. 05. 2024
  • Hello and welcome (or should that be hellcome?) to another Words Unravelled. In this episode, Rob and Jess discuss word mash-ups.
    - 🍊Was an orange ever a norange?
    - 🍔 Why do cheeseburgers make no sense?
    - ❓Is it okay to "aks" instead of "ask"?
    These questions answered and many more as we explore portmanteaus, rebracketing and metathesis.
    👂LISTEN: podfollow.com/words-unravelle...
    or search for "Words Unravelled" wherever you get your podcasts.
    ==LINKS==
    Rob's CZcams channel: / robwords
    Jess' Useless Etymology blog: uselessetymology.com/
    Rob on X: x.com/robwordsyt
    Jess on TikTok: tiktok.com/@jesszafarris
    #etymology #wordfacts #English

Komentáƙe • 839

  • @davidjames6879
    @davidjames6879 Pƙed 23 dny +54

    My wife created a portmanteau the other day. When her supervisor was not in office but asked another to see who was at work, she calls that second supervisor a "snoopervisor."

    • @lostwizard
      @lostwizard Pƙed 4 dny

      That one seems to be independently coined quite regularly.

    • @GillianBergh
      @GillianBergh Pƙed 16 hodinami

      It sounds like a Freudian slip. 😀

  • @fmaximus
    @fmaximus Pƙed 24 dny +61

    I like the word Automagically, something that works automatically but you don't understand why or how.

    • @musingwithreba9667
      @musingwithreba9667 Pƙed 22 dny +1

      It's one of my favourites as well 😊

    • @markbernier8434
      @markbernier8434 Pƙed 20 dny +7

      Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. A.C. Clarke.

  • @kathyperantie5160
    @kathyperantie5160 Pƙed 24 dny +54

    My favorite portmanteau is procrastiworking - doing irrelevant tasks to put off doing the thing you are supposed to be doing. Yesterday my son cleaned his room to put off studying for his math test.

    • @michaelturner2806
      @michaelturner2806 Pƙed 23 dny +3

      Ooo I love that, I do that all the time myself. Sorry, those dirty dishes will have to stay in the sink a while longer, I have to fix this creaky staircase. I'd like to use this excellent word myself!

    • @musingwithreba9667
      @musingwithreba9667 Pƙed 22 dny +3

      Ha ha ha! I was doing that at work today 😂

    • @scattygirl1
      @scattygirl1 Pƙed 20 dny +1

      I feel seen...

    • @ADEpoch
      @ADEpoch Pƙed 19 dny +2

      I've heard a similar one from someone who was meant to be studying: Procrastobaking.

    • @coraliemoller3896
      @coraliemoller3896 Pƙed 17 dny +1

      I love that.
      I used to ‘procrastiwork’ most mornings when I first sat at my work desk, putting off work that needed cognitive abilities until I had fully woken. Then, about 11 am, I would be ready to handle anything.

  • @FaridTaba
    @FaridTaba Pƙed 24 dny +116

    Please never cancel this podcast! 💜

    • @donwald3436
      @donwald3436 Pƙed 24 dny +1

      I mean it'll end when they run out of ideas like every other one lol.

    • @Syiepherze
      @Syiepherze Pƙed 24 dny +6

      ​@@donwald3436 The subject is pretty vast, I can see it going on for a while

    • @WordsUnravelled
      @WordsUnravelled  Pƙed 24 dny +15

      @@Syiepherze Been writing about it for 15 years and haven't run out of material yet! - JZ

    • @BillPatten-zh6lx
      @BillPatten-zh6lx Pƙed 23 dny +3

      I am lapping up these videos like a starving pooch.

    • @EricRobertson-pm1fw
      @EricRobertson-pm1fw Pƙed 17 dny

      ​@@BillPatten-zh6lxor, you could be cramming them down your throat like a coniferous canine.

  • @LordRogerPovey
    @LordRogerPovey Pƙed 24 dny +19

    I had a bit of fun once with the Deliveroo driver. He knocked on my door and when I answered he said 'Takeaway Delivery'. I replied that I thought I had cancelled my Oxymoron subscription a while ago, he stared at me so I smiled, took the bag and closed the door. Some fall on stony ground!

  • @clintonlemarluke1507
    @clintonlemarluke1507 Pƙed 24 dny +46

    I once said "Carmel" instead of "Caramel" to a British friend.
    He exclaimed, "Carmel? Carmel? It's Caramel. There's a perfectly good A in the middle of that word and you Americans insist on leaving it out."
    I countered, "How do you say battery?"
    He replied, "Battry." Oh! never mind."

    • @nanoRat
      @nanoRat Pƙed 24 dny +4

      Carmel is Biblical. It is the Hebrew word for garden. Hence the cities of Carmel, California and Carmel, Indiana

    • @wardsdotnet
      @wardsdotnet Pƙed 24 dny +3

      American here, I've always heard the A in the middle of caramel pronounced, distinct from the place name Carmel

    • @matthewsaulsbury3011
      @matthewsaulsbury3011 Pƙed 23 dny +2

      As an American, I prefer to say cĂ€rməl. I enjoyed a caramel candy earlier today! Lol

    • @scattygirl1
      @scattygirl1 Pƙed 20 dny +2

      You could also have asked him how he pronounced secretary. Although it's beginning to die out, older Brits ignore the final A and pronounce it SEC-ruh-tree. Same with military. And library. It really is pointless trying to apply logic to pronunciation of English words in order to win an argument 🙂

    • @boragoblue680
      @boragoblue680 Pƙed 18 dny +1

      This American says car-a-mel always.

  • @suemeonyoutube
    @suemeonyoutube Pƙed 24 dny +60

    The original portmanteau suitcases had two separate compartments divided by a canvas panel. This would have been well known to Carroll's readers, so they would have found the connection obvious. 😉

  • @elainebelzDetroit
    @elainebelzDetroit Pƙed 23 dny +19

    I think a word like ginormous is a matter of multiplying through redundancy. Not just enormous, not just gigantic, it's ginormous!

    • @loisdungey3528
      @loisdungey3528 Pƙed 6 dny

      Ginormous is a word I use quite frequently. Usually as an exaggeration!

  • @davewalter1216
    @davewalter1216 Pƙed 24 dny +46

    Adorkable is a perfect description. Thanks for keeping me smiling and laughing, and learning.

  • @wjstix
    @wjstix Pƙed 18 dny +13

    Since you mentioned Arabic "Al"....The Arabs brought a string instrument called an "oud" with them to Spain in the Middle Ages. As it became popular in Europe, the name changed over time from the Arabic "Al Oud" to "A Lute".

  • @aidanb.c.2325
    @aidanb.c.2325 Pƙed 24 dny +39

    I would never describe your podcast as craptacular, because it's rather fantabulous.

    • @sandman0123
      @sandman0123 Pƙed dnem +1

      ...or craptastic is a similar one. 😀
      This ws definitely a fun video, though!!

  • @mizapf
    @mizapf Pƙed 18 dny +10

    The favorite portmanteau from German is verschlimmbessern (from verbessern = make better, and verschlimmern = make worse), describing an action that was intended to improve something, probably succeeding to some extent, but at the same time making it worse at another part.

  • @ArsLonga1967
    @ArsLonga1967 Pƙed 24 dny +41

    My children ( two girls) refer to my brilliant moustache as a "moustastropre" (Moustache/catastrophe) ... they are aged 6 & 9...

  • @ARNervebag
    @ARNervebag Pƙed 24 dny +44

    A quite interesting additional case of metathesis:
    'Hangnail' is a folk etymological warping of the original Middle English 'agnail' (based on the misapprehension that the word combined 'nail' and 'hang'), while 'agnail' itself descends metathetically from Old English 'angnĂŠl', in which the 'ang' part means "tight/painful" and is cognate with the 'ang' part of 'anguish', 'anxiety', 'angst', and so on...

  • @MariElenSammon
    @MariElenSammon Pƙed 23 dny +12

    Your talk of bridal took me down the path to a bridezilla!

  • @Dodo-bf3dm
    @Dodo-bf3dm Pƙed 24 dny +15

    My favorite portmanteau that I came up with while visiting the imperial palace in Wien, was "imperiority complex", to describe the "compensating" opulence of the Emperor

  • @_volder
    @_volder Pƙed 24 dny +48

    I routinely use "confuzzle(d)" (confuse(d) + puzzle(d)). I invented it myself, but I've seen it used by other people who didn't get it from me, so there's no telling how many inventors it has.

    • @ferdi5407
      @ferdi5407 Pƙed 24 dny +1

      Our family uses it too

    • @PrincessTidge
      @PrincessTidge Pƙed 24 dny +3

      A Heffalump or Woozle
      Is very confusel
      The Heffalump or woozle's very sly - sly, sly, sly
      Winnie the Pooh - 1977 😄

    • @KenFullman
      @KenFullman Pƙed 24 dny +2

      I have a similar story. As a kid I invented "geniacle" (Genius + Maniacle). So the actions of a genius are geniacle. I first used it when I was out with my uncle and the engine had a catastrophic failure in the middle of nowhere. His solution was to carefully remove the sump (so retaining the oil) then stripping down the engine from below, he removed the offending piston. Finally he was able to restart the engine and it got us home with the remaining three cylinders. (it didn't even run that bad) Obviously I felt such a feat was absolutely "geniacle".
      It caught on in my family but on very rare occaisions I've heard it used by someone with no connection to my family. It's just a form of homoplasy.

    • @elizabethmcglothlin5406
      @elizabethmcglothlin5406 Pƙed 24 dny +3

      Some of these leave me confusticated.

    • @Ithirahad
      @Ithirahad Pƙed 24 dny

      I generally thought of confuzzled as a mixture of confused and fuzzy (as in fuzzy maths or brain fuzz).

  • @locodiver8665
    @locodiver8665 Pƙed 24 dny +41

    A modern re bracketing that I’ve heard a lot is changing “another” to “a nother”, usually inserting the word “whole” in between, to create “a whole nother”, instead of an whole other

    • @MM-jm6do
      @MM-jm6do Pƙed 24 dny +3

      Great example, love this

    • @quakxy_dukx
      @quakxy_dukx Pƙed 24 dny +1

      Exactly the example I was thinking of

    • @caramelldansen2204
      @caramelldansen2204 Pƙed 24 dny +5

      "a whole other"? 😁

    • @locodiver8665
      @locodiver8665 Pƙed 24 dny +1

      @@caramelldansen2204 yes that would get rid of the ‘n’ altogether, but people are simply re-bracketing it, splitting it from ‘an’ and attaching it to ‘other’. I’m with you- get rid of the N altogether and you don’t need to worry about it 😆

    • @caramelldansen2204
      @caramelldansen2204 Pƙed 24 dny +1

      @@locodiver8665 sure, but I meant you said "an whole" at the end of your original comment :)

  • @johnsarkissian5519
    @johnsarkissian5519 Pƙed 24 dny +35

    How about the best known and most commonly used portmanteau of all? I mean “smog”!

    • @PhilipWorthington
      @PhilipWorthington Pƙed 23 dny +4

      I think how often that's used is region-dependent. I imagine Londoners use it a lot, but I don't hear it much elsewhere.
      The lost common portmanteau of recent times is surely 'Brexit!'

    • @craiganderson5556
      @craiganderson5556 Pƙed 23 dny +4

      @@PhilipWorthington "Smog" is common in southern California, but it refers to a different kind of air pollution. California smog is primarily photochemically-produced ozone, rather than the London Smog, which I understand was coal smoke containing sulfur dioxide--no sunshine required.

    • @Markle2k
      @Markle2k Pƙed 17 dny +2

      @@PhilipWorthington Smog is widely used in North America to refer to visible, hazy air pollution, regardless of water content

    • @A_nony_mous
      @A_nony_mous Pƙed 12 hodinami

      You all forgot about breakfast = break + fast

  • @davidkantor7978
    @davidkantor7978 Pƙed 21 dnem +5

    In music there is a feature called portamento- sliding from one note to another. The word is from Italian, as are most musical terms.
    But getting back to portmanteau in language, I can give you some examples. Someone was describing how some papers were scattered about, and he went around trying to scalvage them. He was blending scavenge and salvage.
    And when I take my dog for a walk, I refer to it as giving her a poopertunity.

  • @deannearmaya8090
    @deannearmaya8090 Pƙed 24 dny +28

    My husband has a portmanteau he invented by accident (as English is his second language). He says 'stragedy', combining strategy and tragedy. It may have been said accidentally at first, but he uses it proudly now.

    • @chickadeeacres3864
      @chickadeeacres3864 Pƙed 24 dny +2

      I like it! Would it be used after loosing at chess for example?

    • @BillPatten-zh6lx
      @BillPatten-zh6lx Pƙed 23 dny

      ..and of course the portmanteau forever associated with a former US president, "strategery".

    • @BillPatten-zh6lx
      @BillPatten-zh6lx Pƙed 23 dny +1

      I always thought the english rule was to change to "an" in front of a vowel. I love learning the history of my first language.

    • @BillPatten-zh6lx
      @BillPatten-zh6lx Pƙed 23 dny

      I thought "doodle" must have come from a different place because of the songs, "Yankee doodle", and "I'm a yankee doodle dandy"..

    • @BillPatten-zh6lx
      @BillPatten-zh6lx Pƙed 23 dny

      I enjoy changing the pronunciation of words into metathasase (?) . For instance, I will change "comfortable" to comvertible", as in a "comfortable convertible" automobile.

  • @AndrewPepperstone
    @AndrewPepperstone Pƙed 24 dny +10

    We also have the American English suffix for scandals -gate, from Watergate.

  • @ThePyramidone
    @ThePyramidone Pƙed 24 dny +14

    You can find the term doughnut in one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, "Farmer Boy", which chronicles her husband Alonzo's early life in upper New York state. The passage depicts the family deep frying these tender morsels. The dough was placed in a deep vat of melted lard and when the one side was fried it automatically turned itself to fry the other side. She specifies in horror how city folk were putting holes in them. The passage caused me to realize why doughnuts were called doughnuts in the first place.

    • @barrydavis114
      @barrydavis114 Pƙed 23 dny +3

      It's the reason why WWI soldiers were known as doughboys, from the doughnuts and coffee handed out to soldiers by lady volunteers at the ports

    • @arthurbrands6935
      @arthurbrands6935 Pƙed 6 dny

      Doughnuts were originally dough naughts, naught = zero .

  • @garyw3070
    @garyw3070 Pƙed 23 dny +6

    "She turned me into a newt!" ... "I got better"

  • @davetown
    @davetown Pƙed 23 dny +4

    Rob and Jess - Thanks for creating this channel. I was always a science/logic/analytics guy, but now that I'm retired, I find that I'm fascinated by language. (Who would have thought?) I really enjoy learning about words and their origins. You do a fantastic job of educating and entertaining. Keep up the good work!!

  • @alansimonis8283
    @alansimonis8283 Pƙed 24 dny +15

    Regarding vacations - I feel like "staycation" is a proper portmanteau, with stay and vacation being the combined words. However, I wonder if the popularization of that term has led to "cation" being rebracketed (since the root is "vacare") to mean any kind of leisure trip - I've seen cruises marketed as "Seacations" for example.

    • @auldfouter8661
      @auldfouter8661 Pƙed 24 dny +7

      In Scotland we have the holiday destination of Hameldaeme when you aren't going anywhere. ( Home will do me )

    • @WordsUnravelled
      @WordsUnravelled  Pƙed 24 dny +5

      Definitely! Great rebracketing example. - JZ

    • @conniebruckner8190
      @conniebruckner8190 Pƙed 24 dny +1

      @@auldfouter8661 We have the expression of staying at home as going to "Balkonien" Was often used during lockdowns.

    • @LymanPhillips
      @LymanPhillips Pƙed 23 dny +5

      Seacation is apalling. Isn't that just a voyage or a cruise? Marketers have no respect for language.

    • @jpe1
      @jpe1 Pƙed 20 dny

      10:49 “[gerrymander] is named for Elbridge Gerry” now I understand why you pronounce gerrymander wrong, you also pronounce Gerry wrong. It’s pronounced with the same hard G sound as the surname Getty, not the soft G of giant.
      I wonder if people pronounce Gerry’s name wrong because they hear gerrymander pronounced wrong, and knowing that that is a portmanteau, assume that Gerry is (very inexplicably) pronounced with a soft g?

  • @lohphat
    @lohphat Pƙed 22 dny +5

    If you've ever bought property, there are stacks of paperwork to sign.
    I am up with "Carpal Title Syndrome".
    The Title agent laughed at that.

  • @Larsemillarsen
    @Larsemillarsen Pƙed 24 dny +12

    The case of "bridal" is quite interesting. In Danish we still have the concept of "gravĂžl" litterally "grave ale/beer" which is a wake or a gathering with or without something to eat/drink after a funeral and "fyraftensĂžl" wich means something to the effect of "a beer after work" even though is dosn't need to involve beer. Maybe that's the same thing.

    • @WordsUnravelled
      @WordsUnravelled  Pƙed 24 dny +2

      This is so cool! I had been looking for similar concepts and hadn't yet found any. Thanks for sharing. - JZ

  • @EricaGamet
    @EricaGamet Pƙed 23 dny +10

    The "pter" like you see in pterodactyl (wing finger) is also in the scientific name for bats (my favorite animal). It's "chiroptera" (chiro/cheir + ptera = hand wing)... next time you see a bat with wings spread, notice how there are four bony "fingers" in the wing and the thumb that sticks up at the top. I never thought about it being part of helicopter, though... love it! On portmanteaus(x?), would Benelux be considered a triple threat? Also, I have used the word gription (like grip + traction) for 35+ years and I tend to forget it's not actually a word. I will pretty much make a portmanteau of any two words that force me to say the same syllable twice (at the end of the first and the beginning of the second). Ain't nobody got time for that!
    Pedantic note: The Swedish ö is not an o with umlauts (they really don't even know that word unless they know German). It's not a diacritic like in German... it's an entirely separate letter/character that comes at the end of the alphabet: ABCD...XYZÅÄÖ. My Swedish family is adamant about that.

    • @allendracabal0819
      @allendracabal0819 Pƙed 14 dny

      Well done with Benelux. It only uses the starting parts of the three place names, so therefore might not technically be considered a portmanteau word, but I would definitely give you the triple word score.

    • @sourisvoleur4854
      @sourisvoleur4854 Pƙed 12 dny

      We used to say "gription" when I was a lad. My friend Joe coined it (or at least brought it into the friend circle). It's a pity it's not spread far and wide enough to be a known and accepted dictionary word.

    • @donkrapf
      @donkrapf Pƙed 11 dny

      Pterodactyl(us) and pteranodon ("toothless wing") are both genera of pterosaurs (wing lizard). (Not dinosaurs!)

  • @KevinWMoor
    @KevinWMoor Pƙed 24 dny +8

    The British newspaper cartoon strip The Perishers. The kids in it used to talk of A Norse (A horse) and Another Rorse (another horse). Sort of a joke for of de-bracketing :)

  • @aresee8208
    @aresee8208 Pƙed 17 dny +3

    I lived in Germany for over 2 years (not Berlin, but northern Baden-WĂŒrttemberg) and the only peoole I've ever met who claim Kennedy said "I am a donut" were English speaking non-Germans.

  • @pleappleappleap
    @pleappleappleap Pƙed 24 dny +6

    A recent one I really like is "exhaustipated".

  • @equolizer
    @equolizer Pƙed 24 dny +8

    In Bavarian (and probably other German dialects as well) a wasp is called Weps just like in Old English. In High German its Wespe.

    • @mortisCZ
      @mortisCZ Pƙed 14 dny

      Italians call the same insect vespa.

    • @elbarsuk
      @elbarsuk Pƙed 10 dny

      Dutch: wesp. Norwegian: veps (v pronounced as w)

  • @darkwaveatheist
    @darkwaveatheist Pƙed 24 dny +9

    This channel should have so many more subscriptions.

  • @normamcphee8956
    @normamcphee8956 Pƙed 24 dny +5

    You guys are the adorkable etymological teamup I didn't know I needed in my life. Just downoaded Jess's book.

  • @kristenrobinson2894
    @kristenrobinson2894 Pƙed 24 dny +18

    Thought you might be interested to know that In Australia dog breeds crossed with poodles are known as “oodles”. So Shihpoo is Shoodle (not to be confused with the Schnoodle) a Cockapoo is a Spoodle, a Cavapoo is Cavoodle and a Goldendoodle is a Groodle.

    • @LikkieAU
      @LikkieAU Pƙed 24 dny

      Probably helped by the fact that, in Australia, “doodle” is a term for male genitalia.

    • @WordsUnravelled
      @WordsUnravelled  Pƙed 24 dny +1

      This is fantastic knowledge, thank you! - JZ

    • @musingwithreba9667
      @musingwithreba9667 Pƙed 22 dny

      I much prefer the Australian "Groodle" over the North American "Golden Doodle" which is just...ugh...😝 Whenever I see one, I tell the human at the other end of the leash that Grrodle makes so much more sense, and so far, that have all agreed, so hopefully, it will change here.
      Or maybe we can just call all of them mutts! đŸ˜‰đŸ€Ł

    • @sourisvoleur4854
      @sourisvoleur4854 Pƙed 12 dny

      @@musingwithreba9667 Thing is, the word "doodle" has come to be a collective for any of the -doodle breeds. Labradoodle, Goldendoodle, Sheepadoodle, and so forth. If you google "doodle dog" you will find tons of pages that talk about doodles as a group. (add "dog" to differentiate from intentional scribbling)

  • @AudioTech50
    @AudioTech50 Pƙed 18 dny +3

    One of my favorites is "stiction", coined around 1990 to describ a problem with Seagate hard drives where the parked heads stuck to the platters and kept the drive from spinning up.

    • @mattheffron391
      @mattheffron391 Pƙed 12 dny +1

      I remember "stiction" from at least the 1970s as the "static friction", because it often requires more force to start sliding something (overcome the stiction") than the force to keep it moving (the "regular" friction).

  • @katanaki3059
    @katanaki3059 Pƙed 18 dny +2

    “Flinking” is the pleasurable time spent floating and drinking in the lake

  • @randalreifsnider6221
    @randalreifsnider6221 Pƙed 22 dny +3

    A friend of mine recently post a college graduation photo of herself on social media. According to the caption she included with the photo, she had graduated exactly 10 years ago on date she posted the photo. To honor her, I wished her a "Happy Graduversary."

    • @rodgervsaffell2085
      @rodgervsaffell2085 Pƙed 21 dnem

      Much to the chagrin of spellchecker I like to use the one word "conGRADulations" and/or omit the "L" and "S".🎉😼

  • @TheMcspreader
    @TheMcspreader Pƙed 24 dny +3

    Reminds me of an olde joke.
    Name three fruits that begin with 'n'.
    A napple, a norange and a nana.

  • @ThePedr59
    @ThePedr59 Pƙed 17 dny +1

    Many years ago when my children were little I invented the word SHIME. It is a mash-up, as you put it, Rob, of Short and Time and I used it instead of saying "I will be there in a second" or "I'll do that in a minute." I would say I will be there in a shime or I will do that in a shime. So, Shime is defined as an undetermined short period of time.

  • @ferdi5407
    @ferdi5407 Pƙed 24 dny +10

    My day just suddenly got VERY good when I saw my notification! These videos are wonderful! Please keep them coming❀

  • @jejunemoon
    @jejunemoon Pƙed 24 dny +2

    Terrific video! I’m really loving the pairing of you two - a kind of portmanteau mash-up of posh Brit and American girl-next-door “adorkables”. Jess, you remind me so much of the character Stevie Budd (from the series “Schitt’s Creek”), played by actress Emily Hampshire. Please keep this collaboration going. It’s such a treat!

  • @robertcoughlin4961
    @robertcoughlin4961 Pƙed 22 dny +2

    My daughter coined in the urban dictionary the word “RUGSOME” defined as “RUGGEDLY-HANDSOME”.
    I love it!

    • @rodgervsaffell2085
      @rodgervsaffell2085 Pƙed 21 dnem +1

      On the same subject of hair, I occasionally hear the use of the word, "beardstache" used for the word "goatee".

  • @coraliemoller3896
    @coraliemoller3896 Pƙed 17 dny +1

    I recently read about a new relationship word: a situationship.
    This is where the parties are in a situation which has not yet reached the level of a relationship.

  • @dougawesomecities
    @dougawesomecities Pƙed 14 dny +2

    I like how you used the portmanteau "horrific" to talk about the turducken

  • @denverbraughler3948
    @denverbraughler3948 Pƙed 24 dny +9

    “Wasp” almost certainly derives from Latin “vespa” which might have corrected the metathesis.

    • @dinolytras2177
      @dinolytras2177 Pƙed 17 dny

      It actually derives from an Aryan word which is cognate with Latin "vespa".

    • @suschi6328
      @suschi6328 Pƙed 17 dny

      However, the relative of Old English wĂŠps survives to this day in the Bavarian dialect as 'der Weps' for the wasp... Or maybe it's just a coincidence .

  • @clintonlemarluke1507
    @clintonlemarluke1507 Pƙed 24 dny +5

    A friend worked on Sunday to finish our countertop but he compensated by listening to General Conference talks. He "confrensated."

  •  Pƙed 16 dny +1

    My favorite portmanteu is from a quiz show where each category is represented by a character, sometimes partially animal based. So of course the category is called Portmantoad.

  • @IanKemp1960
    @IanKemp1960 Pƙed 24 dny +12

    Dear Jess & Rob, you can have great fun looking at the names of Pokemons. So many of these are portmanteaus, in several different languages :-) Venusaur, Charmelon, Herbizarre, Carapuce, etc :-)

    • @wardsdotnet
      @wardsdotnet Pƙed 24 dny +2

      The word Pokemon itself is one, from pocket monster

    • @allendracabal0819
      @allendracabal0819 Pƙed 14 dny

      @@wardsdotnet Kind of, but it is really more just an abbreviation. The Japanese love to abbreviate everything.

  • @ice9snowflake187
    @ice9snowflake187 Pƙed 24 dny +7

    Interesting that jelly-filled doughnuts when I was a boy in Minnesota were called "Bismarks"

  • @melaniesalavante
    @melaniesalavante Pƙed 24 dny +4

    Another great episode! Looking forward to that color words episode 😊

  • @c.j.hyperspace3371
    @c.j.hyperspace3371 Pƙed 6 dny +2

    I was a bit surprised that couple names like Brangelina weren't mentioned. But loved it.❀

  • @michaelmcclellan5345
    @michaelmcclellan5345 Pƙed 24 dny +4

    John Madden (the famous NFL head coach) made the turducken famous as he would show them every Thanksgiving during the broadcast of the Thanksgiving Day games and other games throughout the season.

  • @dominiquetaulelle5385
    @dominiquetaulelle5385 Pƙed 23 dny +1

    I am French and enjoys Robwords and Words Unravelled. In everyday french, porte-manteau is a coat hanger (also called "cintre" in french, but both are frequent). I have heard "porte manteau" used as a person who takes the shame for someone else, as a manteau would cover the original thing.

  • @BobDay-qu7yl
    @BobDay-qu7yl Pƙed 24 dny +6

    So we in America have now upped the Turducken. Add a small ham the middle and you now have “Turduckenham”

    • @JM-The_Curious
      @JM-The_Curious Pƙed 16 dny +1

      They play rugby there.

    • @JonBrase
      @JonBrase Pƙed 7 dny +1

      Use an octopus instead of a chicken and duck and you have a Turcthulhu.

  • @Rukargil
    @Rukargil Pƙed 23 dny +2

    As a young child, I would be told we were going for a walk in the 'graveyard', but sometimes my parents would call it the 'cemetery', so for years I called it the 'gravelly'

    • @GunnarMiller
      @GunnarMiller Pƙed 14 dny

      Did you "gravely read the stones?" ;-) czcams.com/video/dfXqxjMkyQ4/video.htmlsi=pju3YJ7-7OCJArAe

  • @adamwhite2364
    @adamwhite2364 Pƙed 24 dny +11

    Just a heads-up about gerrymandering; Elbridge Gerry pronounced his last name with a hard G, so while the portmanteau named for him has been corrupted to a soft G, his name still gets the hard G

    • @WordsUnravelled
      @WordsUnravelled  Pƙed 24 dny +2

      You know, I knew that. I have an older TikTok video about this subject in which I pronounced it correctly. The information must have vacated my brain during this recording. - JZ

    • @adamwhite2364
      @adamwhite2364 Pƙed 24 dny +2

      @@WordsUnravelled it could be worse; my wife grew up just north of Boston where he spent much of his adult life, so she doesn't even like it when I use the soft G on gerrymandering đŸ€Ł

    • @DanSolo871
      @DanSolo871 Pƙed 22 dny

      @@adamwhite2364 y’all in Boston pronounce your basketball team wrong so
.😊

  • @jhdix6731
    @jhdix6731 Pƙed 24 dny +5

    In German, while "Spitzname" (a name that can hurt) is more common now, in older books you can find "Neckname" as well, related to the verb "necken" (=to tease).As for the orange, while the word "Orange" is used is Geman as well, the older word "Apfelsine" (="Chinese apple", derived from dutch "appelsien" oder "sinaasappel") is equally common. (It's only used for the fruit, though, not the color).

  • @tonyberkoff9725
    @tonyberkoff9725 Pƙed 20 dny +3

    A portmanteau I rather like, being an uncle to dozens of my siblings’ children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren is this: nibling. It’s a combination of nephew (or niece) and sibling. It’s a collective term for nephews and nieces, just like siblings are brothers and sisters collectively.

    • @sourisvoleur4854
      @sourisvoleur4854 Pƙed 12 dny

      And a very useful word it is! Now we need one for uncles and aunts collectively.

    • @williambiggs3699
      @williambiggs3699 Pƙed 11 dny

      I don't know... sounds a lot like nibble.

  • @anders630
    @anders630 Pƙed 24 dny +3

    You're so adorable together, such a great mashup.
    Rob the pronounciation of "öknamn" was very good.
    While there is an umlaut on ö it is a separate letter and not a version of o.

  • @ingar-n723
    @ingar-n723 Pƙed 23 dny +1

    My mom had a habit of accidentally making portmanteaus. The one I remember is “slaunter” a mix of saunter and slander, which for us now describes someone who lazily walks to go do something.

  • @kirbyandkirby
    @kirbyandkirby Pƙed 23 dny +3

    Here's one from the working-class Midwest US that always tickled me growing up, favored by my father and grandfather, that is both metathesis and portmanteau: "Pertner" meaning "pretty nearly" or "pretty near," like "that wreck pertner killed him" or "I was pertner home when it started raining."

  • @PhilipWorthington
    @PhilipWorthington Pƙed 23 dny +1

    I have always assumes that 'nap' for cloth relates to napkin, napsack and nappy. Thank you for bringing in the 'napron' connection too!

  • @francoiscarrier8745
    @francoiscarrier8745 Pƙed 11 dny

    The small piece of embroidered cloth meant to decorate or accentuate furniture is called "napperon" in French. I just love how it became more useful as "apron" in English.

  • @annwagner5779
    @annwagner5779 Pƙed 24 dny +2

    Or ports manteau? 😉 I love the way you two do this together. You are both fascinating on your own, but particularly amazing together.

  • @MartinAhlman
    @MartinAhlman Pƙed 24 dny +3

    Orange, the fruit, is "apelsin" (apple from china), but we already had the colour orange: Brandgul (brand+gul = fire yellow) 🙂

  • @gdp3rd
    @gdp3rd Pƙed 24 dny +2

    Like those from economics, they are a bit unsatisfying, but meteorology has given us snowpocalypse and snowmageddon. And along the lines of multiverse, in science-fiction and comic fandom we also have omniverse, for all the universes or multiverses.

    • @WordsUnravelled
      @WordsUnravelled  Pƙed 24 dny

      I was in Chicago for the 2011 Snowmageddon. I climbed out of my apartment's second-story window directly onto a snow drift! - JZ

    • @rodgervsaffell2085
      @rodgervsaffell2085 Pƙed 21 dnem

      How does "university" fit,...or not.

  • @Zombie-lx3sh
    @Zombie-lx3sh Pƙed 13 dny

    Re: napron. In French, when a single piece of cloth covers the entire table, it's a nappe, but when you put something smaller to protect the table in front of each person, it's a napperon and the e is still silent, so even closer to napron.

  • @darenallisonyoung8568
    @darenallisonyoung8568 Pƙed 24 dny +2

    A derivative of the turducken is another food portmanteau: the cherpumple cake. Cherry, pumpkin, and apple pies are cooked completely, and then each is baked inside a cake layer. Then the whole thing is stacked up and frosted/iced.

  • @oleksandrbyelyenko435
    @oleksandrbyelyenko435 Pƙed 24 dny +4

    Pomodoro (tomato) is golden apple 😊

  • @kellachhaelan
    @kellachhaelan Pƙed 24 dny +4

    My favorite portmanteau is a nonsensical word that comes from the British parody show Look Around You. In a scene, ants build an igloo and the narrator thanks them, coining the term "Thants".

  • @FranOnTheEdge
    @FranOnTheEdge Pƙed 23 dny +2

    As a child I called a wheelbarrow - a wheelybout - pity it never caught on with anyone else!

  • @arthurathanassiou3948
    @arthurathanassiou3948 Pƙed 10 dny

    Your conversations are just marvellous. Please keep 'em coming. And I "LOVED" the story about merging Greek surnames, so cute.

  • @Nennius01
    @Nennius01 Pƙed 10 dny

    Another example of metathesis, at least as far as I was told, is butterfly used to be "flutterby." It may be folk etymology but flutterby makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE!

  • @StarSong936
    @StarSong936 Pƙed 20 dny +2

    I have used "a napple" and "a norange" as a joke, not because I thought it was correct. I've also used "flutter by" in place of "butterfly" because of what they do. Butterflies flutter by.

    • @JM-The_Curious
      @JM-The_Curious Pƙed 16 dny

      Sometimes people say that a butterfly used to be a flutterby. It's one of those things that I've never checked to see if it's true or not.

  • @joeldcanfield_spinhead
    @joeldcanfield_spinhead Pƙed 23 dny +2

    As a recovering grammar snob, I always contest the severe reactions to poisonous vs venemous. In common usage, no one but herpetologists and grammar snobs are bothered by a snake or bug being called poisonous. (Chemists, too, I suppose, since the diff between p and v is first chemical, then delivery system.)
    My favorite test of what people truly believe about a word is to tell them there's a poisonous snake near their foot. If they reply "Then I'll be careful not to eat it" I've learned something about their depth of commitment to their snobbery. I mean definition.

    • @craiganderson5556
      @craiganderson5556 Pƙed 23 dny

      Indeed! Are there any poisonous snakes in the strict sense? I think there are both poisonous and venomous arthropods, but for snakes the meaning is clear.

    • @musingwithreba9667
      @musingwithreba9667 Pƙed 22 dny

      Snake lovers quite take offense to calling a snake poisonous, it's not just grammar snobs.

  • @eksplosiveknight8891
    @eksplosiveknight8891 Pƙed 24 dny +2

    thanks!! I'm going to start saying Shiny-Bright as a euphemism now!!

  • @karlfimm
    @karlfimm Pƙed 24 dny +2

    There may not be "groomal", but I've certainly seen "spousal".

  • @steeveletur1983
    @steeveletur1983 Pƙed 24 dny +1

    I had always assumed apron came from the French napperon, which is some table cloth grandmothers used to knit and put under a plate. The older the grandma became the more napperons she knitted, and they eventually end up everywhere, under the telly, under books or framed pictures, etc.

  • @stevewakefield5001
    @stevewakefield5001 Pƙed 24 dny +3

    Love it!!!! You guys are great!

  • @Outliver
    @Outliver Pƙed 24 dny +4

    Two things I wanna note here: No. 1: As a musician I was screaming the word "portamento" at my screen, which is when you merge two notes together (think "pitch shift"). I think that would've made things a lot clearer. Second thing is about the word "apple"/"pom", which I believe just means "fruit". Aside from the ones you mentioned, in German there is another word for orange, "Apfelsine", meaning "Chinese apple", in Italian you get "pomodoro", the "golden apple", and even in English we have an apple that looks like a pine cone. Etymologically, every other fruit is basically just an apple with some sort of discriminator. Even if doesn't seem like it at first (e.g. "melon"), if you trace it back far enough, in the end it almost always ends up being an apple of some kind.

    • @virginiabarnsley1658
      @virginiabarnsley1658 Pƙed 23 dny

      Pineapple = pine + fruit, and a pineapple looks like a pine cone. I'd never thought of that! Thank you!!

  • @ek7675
    @ek7675 Pƙed 22 dny +1

    I must be utterly adorkable because I love this.

  • @MrElstef
    @MrElstef Pƙed dnem

    Funny you talk about Nissan. When Nissan wanted to enter the European market. The board of directors of Nissan insisted that they would rebrand their name for the European market because the name Nissan sounded to "foreign" for Europe. The assignment was that they'd find a name that was easy to pronounce for Europeans and had a good sound, but also should have a Japanese feeling to it. The Japanese hired a Dutch marketing bureau, but they could not come up with a proper name... after a while, with still no new name, the contactperson of Nissan called the marketing bureau and demanded from their contactperson that they'd come up with a name within 24hours. So the employee of the marketing bureau replied on the phone: "That soon?" And the contactperson of Nissan said: "Yes! That's a good brand name, Datsun." And that's how Nissan was branded "Datsun," when they first entered the European market.

  • @ronfehr7899
    @ronfehr7899 Pƙed 23 dny +1

    I believe one of my niece's first name actually falls under the category of portmanteau. Her mother's name is Carolyn, and her father's (my brother) name is Stanley, although he often goes by the name Stan.
    Anyway, the reason I say this is because her name is Lyndley, lyn (her mother), d (and), ley (her father).

  • @neskire
    @neskire Pƙed 24 dny +1

    Radio personality Gary Owens (also famous for being on the TV show "Laugh-In") coined a portmanteau: insigrievious. He never defined it (he only used it as a nonsense word in his show) but I think of it as "insignificantly grievous".

  • @gregscheve
    @gregscheve Pƙed 16 dny +1

    these two are adorkable

  • @michelleikoma2953
    @michelleikoma2953 Pƙed 21 dnem +1

    I LOVE insinuendo. Excellent!

  • @kencory2476
    @kencory2476 Pƙed 14 dny +2

    Nickel, the element, comes from Nick, the devil, because it was a devilishly hard element to separate from other metals.

    • @GunnarMiller
      @GunnarMiller Pƙed 14 dny

      Well-spotted en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belsnickel .

  • @keithdavies6771
    @keithdavies6771 Pƙed 19 dny

    These are so fun! I find it fascinating that I get really excited about a word, and see you both get excited, too. I don't get anything but blank stares in my everyday interactions with people in my life when I express my joy in etymology, and admiration of some words, and dislike of others. Thank you, so much.

  • @pierreabbat6157
    @pierreabbat6157 Pƙed 24 dny +2

    "Bitåcora" (log, as in web log) is another example of rebracketing. The original is «l'habitacle» (masc.) which means "the small place where [the log book] inhabits". This was misheard as «la bitacle» (fem.) and borrowed into both Spanish and English. Then the 'l' turned into 'r' in Spanish and the 't' into 'n' into English.
    "Alambre" (wire) is a counterexample to the "al-" rule. It's from Latin "aeramen", which became "arame" in Portuguese (not to be confused with the seaweed, which is Japanese).

  • @teespeck3285
    @teespeck3285 Pƙed 18 dny

    love this podcast so much!!

  • @delikatessbruhe9843
    @delikatessbruhe9843 Pƙed 24 dny +2

    Oh we have that wasp/waps thing in German too! Standard German would be "Wespe" but in the Bavarian dialect it's "Weps". That was really funny just now, hearing you say something that sounded Bavarian in the middle of an English sentence :)

    • @joeviolet4185
      @joeviolet4185 Pƙed 24 dny

      And in WĂŒrttemberg the "Weps" becomes a "Wefzg".

  • @cori11ian
    @cori11ian Pƙed 24 dny

    Thank you Jess and Rob

  • @AutoReport1
    @AutoReport1 Pƙed 24 dny +4

    A newt is also an eft. Not only rebracketed but the v reanalyzed as u/w.

  • @simonnicholls5619
    @simonnicholls5619 Pƙed 22 dny

    As a long time Robwords fan, loving the new channel Rob.....but mainly because Jess is MUCH more pleasant to look at than you! đŸ€­đŸ€­đŸ€­đŸ˜œđŸ˜œâ˜șâ˜șâ˜șâ˜ș

  • @RadstacheAbides
    @RadstacheAbides Pƙed 19 dny

    Fantastic episode!

  • @PK.Soniclight
    @PK.Soniclight Pƙed dnem

    "Berliner": Not just used un Germany. When I was growing up in part in Bern, Switzerland (part of the Swiss German Cantons of that country), my mother taking me to the bakery to get a raspberry filled Berliner was a real treat. :)

  • @j7333nnn
    @j7333nnn Pƙed 23 dny

    Love you guys !!

  • @ftbstrd5741
    @ftbstrd5741 Pƙed 24 dny +1

    I love misheard things (The Two Ronnies - Four Candles) 😊