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A lexical blend is a complex word typically made of two word fragments. For example: smog is a blend of smoke and fog; brunch is a blend of breakfast and lunch. [6] stagflation is a blend of stagnation and inflation [1] chunnel is a blend of channel and tunnel, [1] referring to the Channel Tunnel
In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau [a] —is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together. [2] [3] [4] English examples include smog, coined by blending smoke and fog, [3] [5] and motel, from motor and hotel. [6] A blend is similar to a ...
Neologisms are often formed by combining existing words (see compound noun and adjective) or by giving words new and unique suffixes or prefixes. [9] Neologisms can also be formed by blending words, for example, "brunch" is a blend of the words "breakfast" and "lunch", or through abbreviation or acronym, by intentionally rhyming with existing words or simply through playing with sounds.
The Oxford English Dictionary is updated every three months, and September's revamp marks the centenary of the birth of children's book author Roald Dahl.
Palindrome: a word or phrase that reads the same in either direction; Pangram: a sentence which uses every letter of the alphabet at least once; Tautogram: a phrase or sentence in which every word starts with the same letter; Caesar shift: moving all the letters in a word or sentence some fixed number of positions down the alphabet; Techniques ...
The distinction between inflection and word formation is not at all clear-cut. There are many examples for which linguists fail to agree whether a given rule is inflection or word formation. The next section will attempt to clarify the distinction. Word formation includes a process in which one combines two complete words, but inflection allows ...
It is a special case of a type of word formation called clipping. Clipped compounds are common in various slang and jargon vocabularies, [1] but they are not specific to those. Examples in English include sci fi, comp sci, lab tech, and surg tech. A clipped compound word is linguistically a type of blend word.
Generally, words coming from French often retain a higher register than words of Old English origin, and they are considered by some to be more posh, elaborate, sophisticated, or pretentious. However, there are exceptions: weep , groom and stone (from Old English) occupy a slightly higher register than cry , brush and rock (from French).