Reader question:
Please explain "portmanteau words", and give examples.
My comments:
A portmanteau word is one created from combining two existing words. "Portmanteau" itself is such a word. Portmanteau is French, for a dual-purpose suitcase able to hold coats and other items. It's a combination of "porte" (carry) and "manteau" (coat).
The Jabberwocky poem by Louis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass, a sequel to Alice in Wonderland, is full of portmanteaus.
The first stanzas (paragraphs) of that famous nonsensical and yet profoundly brilliant poem reads:
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought-
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
【Carrol's portmanteaus】相关文章:
★ 小学英语教学反思
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