Just As I Thought

They’re called portmanteau words

Every Sunday, I religiously read The Style Invitational in The Washington Post. Today: the results of a contest in which entrants were asked to combine two words that overlap by two letters or more. A couple of my favorites:

  • Bashcroft: The purpose of Washington Post articles about the attorney general.
  • Penultimatum: I’m going to tell you this only one more time after this . . .
  • Malaproposition: “Hey, babe, want to preamble over to my place and copopulate?”

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