portmanteau

Should know this. Don’t.

Definition of portmanteau:
“n.
1. A word formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two different words, as chortle, from chuckle and snort.

2. A word concocted by fusing two different words together into one: a common example is brunch, from ‘breakfast’ and ‘lunch’. The term was coined by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking‐Glass (1871), where he invents the word slithy from ‘lithe’ and ‘slimy’; the portmanteau referred to is a kind of suitcase composed of two halves. The most extended literary use of portmanteau words is found in James Joyce's novel Finnegans Wake (1939).” (answers.com).

Where I ran across it:
There I was, looking up “Bollywood” on answers.com, and in the definition was this wonderful word, portmanteau…

“…The name is a portmanteau of Bombay (the former name for Mumbai) and Hollywood, the center of the American film industry…”

My two cents:
Hi, I’m Susie and I have a problem.

Hi, Susie.

I am a linkoholic. There, I said it. I can’t stop clicking on hyperlinks.

I suffer from the dreaded Ooh, Look, A Bunny Syndrome. Yes, OLABS is my curse. There is no cure. The disease can only be managed. I am powerless under the spell of the bunnies, er hyperlinks. One is too many, and a thousand never enough. Damn those bunnies. Damn those hyperlinks. Damn this disease. Here's my story:

It all started out so innocently. I was curious about “Bollywood” and wanted to know more. Just one little research session I told myself. Off to answers.com I went, where those siren bunnies / hyperlinks lay in wait...

Then it happened: Ooh, look, there’s a cool word that I don’t know, portmanteau. Ooh, look, a bunny / hyperlink. Click. Ooh, look at all the hyperlinks in the definition! Click, read, ooh, click, scroll, read more, ooh, ooh, click, read, scroll, click, ooh, click, click…

Friends, before I knew it I had spent hours clicking hyperlinks and chasing bunnies from answers.com to Wikipedia; from Bollywood to Hollywood to the slithy toves and mimsy borogoves in Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, to Humpty Dumpty’s lexical selection in Through the Looking-Glass, to James Joyce’s prodigious use of portmanteaus in Finnegans Wake, to linguistic blends and function words, to… oh never mind. Suffice it to say that there were many, many more bunnies.

Were it not for my right-click / “open link in new tab” coping skills, I’d have been completely and irretrievably lost. Oh the shame. Oh the humanity.

The first step is admitting the problem...

I guess that’s it. Thanks for listening.