Portmanteau?... Sure

I was having some drinks with a friend recently at one of the favourite local bars, when a music video came on one of the big screen displays.

It caught our attention, being a new release.

When it was finished, my friend said, “That was very craptacular.”

Clever, she just made up a word, joining crap and spectacular. I laughed it off

Then our ordered food came. She looked at it and said, “Wow, we got some real frankenfood here, right?”

Frankenfood?… Ok.

Eventually, these two guys came in the bar. She looks at them and said, “Hmm.. I’m getting a warning from my gaydar.”

They obviously overheard.
I looked at her and said, “Hey, don’t be mean.”

She responds, “Chillax, man. Just making an observation.”

Chillax? The only place I’ve ever heard that before was on an episode of Simpsons.
For some reason, it was a lot funnier then.

Ok. Truth is, I made up that entire conversation, thankfully.

But here’s what I didn’t make up: those weird words.

They are valid and recognized in the English language.
They’re called Portmanteau, and formed by combining two words into a single term.

Check out a whole bunch of them in this article.
Still don’t believe, go to dictionary.com and check it out yourself, which is exactly what I did.

Would I ever use them in my writing, or in any general conversation? Never… maybe…

What do you think? Will you ever use a Portmanteau? Let me know in your comments. And don’t forget to check out this week’s trailer of King Larsen.