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In his book Humorous English, Evan Esar writes,

The blended compound is the fusion of two compounds, with the terminal word of one being the same or similar to the initial word of the other. By such telescoping ... one's adopted country becomes a 'stepfatherland', and Lewis Carroll's dragonfly becomes a 'snapdragonfly'. Many a piece of wit gains its effect solely through a blended compound.

He proceeds to list a few examples:

  • A college education is all too often merely sheepskindeep.
  • The subway has created a new animal—the undergroundhog.
  • Gossip has been defined as something heard over the sour grapevine.

Does anyone know of a technical term for this kind of wordplay? Throughout the book, which is a catalogue of comedic techniques, Esar coins original terms for the phenomena he describes, and so they aren't to be found elsewhere. But I suspect (and hope) that the devices he treats therein have more widely recognized names. Is that the case?

Andrew Leach
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inkd
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  • I've added the [pun] tag as that seems relevant. It may be that this particular type of word-play is more than a simple pun and does have its own name that isn't just "blended compound" – Andrew Leach Feb 09 '15 at 10:40
  • Thanks so much, Andrew. And thank you for editing and organizing my terribly messy post. If I could decipher the instructions, I would've done it myself. – inkd Feb 09 '15 at 10:42
  • It sounds like "portmanteau", but you are looking for a merged phrase, not a merged word. – March Ho Feb 09 '15 at 10:42
  • A word works, too, @MarchHo! Anything that isn't so broad as "blended compound" helps. – inkd Feb 09 '15 at 10:43
  • Sorry, I mean that you are merging into phrases, eg "sour grapevine" and not merely single words. – March Ho Feb 09 '15 at 10:45
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    How many divers does it take to circumsize a whale? – Brian Hitchcock Feb 11 '15 at 07:16
  • I thought about this question so much it gave me a compounding headache. …I'll just get my coat. – stib Feb 13 '15 at 04:20
  • Blended compound seems like an accurate description, and no other technical word comes to mind immediately. Since it is a play on words, pun seems appropriate, though it lacks the breadth of combination. Portmanteau is a combination of blend and contraction, which this phenomenon does not share. With blend sounds in phonetics, and blend words in morphology, blend phrase doesn't seem like a bad bet, except it doesn't grasp the fun of this application. Blend pun would fit, or painting outside the lines with a new portmanteau from blend and pun: *blun*. Four (skinny ones)! – ScotM Feb 13 '15 at 21:17
  • This question reminded me immediately of a popular kind of puzzle on "Wheel of Fortune." They call it "before and after." For example, a "house warming boat," or "bouncing baby ball," or "Jack hammer Sprat" (or "Jack Sprat squat"!). Not exactly the same thing as this compounding whatchamalcallit, but then I'm pretty famous for my non sequiturs! Don – rhetorician Feb 18 '15 at 02:24
  • @BrianHitchcock: OK, I'll take the bait. How many divers DOES it take to circumcise a whale? Don – rhetorician Feb 18 '15 at 02:26
  • @rhetorician: four skin-divers. – Brian Hitchcock Feb 18 '15 at 05:38
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    @BrianHitchcock: Gotcha! Good one! Here's another: I don't want to be immortal by doing great things; I want to be immortal by not dying! And yet another: I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my late grandfather, and not like the screaming passengers in his car! Don – rhetorician Feb 18 '15 at 13:39
  • @BrianHitchcock: Or as we used to say in the early 70s: Why isn't tricky Dick Nixon circumcised? 'Cause there's just no end to that pri**k! – rhetorician Feb 18 '15 at 13:41

1 Answers1

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Wikipedia suggests that they are blend words.

There are many types of blends, based on how they are formed. Algeo, a linguist, proposed dividing blends into three groups:
1. Phonemic Overlap: a syllable or part of a syllable is shared between two words
2. Clipping: the shortening of two words and then compounding them
3. Phonemic Overlap and Clipping: shortening of two words to a shared syllable and then compounding

The first group applies to the examples you have listed.

Pop-culture note: Wheel of Fortune calls puzzles with this style of answer "Before and After" puzzles. The answers are not blended into a single word as you have suggested, but the wit and construction are the same as your usage.

Ian MacDonald
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