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In Romanian, there are words and phrases like "struțo-cămilă" (ostricho-camel) or "magaoaie" (donkeysheep). They both designate comical combinations but while the first one can include combinations that can actually work very well (although the journalists are using it mainly to criticise strange combinations), the second one designates a combination or construction something big, ugly, hard to move and unworkable.

Another word is "crocofant" (crocodil+elefant) but that's just a writer's invention and largely unknown.

I'm not looking only for portmanteaus, also two or three word combinations are good. And they don't have to involve animals. There might be a vast number of such words/phrases, therefore the most used are good enough.

Examples:

  • magaoaie (donkeysheep): A big, old battle cruiser that barely works. It's a structure so it's still a combination of it's parts.

  • struțo-cămilă (ostricho-camel): "A socialist political party with super-rich leaders" or "A wagon with a steering wheel" or "Privatizing a company by selling it to another state-owned company"

What kind of similar English words or phrases exist?

Ark
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  • Are you asking what this kind of combination is called in English or are you simply asking for examples? – KillingTime Nov 04 '17 at 09:01
  • @KillingTime - the first one. Examples are optional but they are welcomed, of course. – Ark Nov 04 '17 at 11:36
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    Just to point out something: English is not a Romance language, so we would say What to call not how to call. – Arm the good guys in America Nov 04 '17 at 14:32
  • @Clare - ok, I've filled some examples. Thanks. Can I ask what's the difference between "What to call" and "how to call"? – Ark Nov 04 '17 at 18:09
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    See “How do we call (something) in English?” – Arm the good guys in America Nov 04 '17 at 18:38
  • Sorry: none of that works in English. Even the distinction between ostricho-camel with and donkeysheep without a hyphen is obscure. the first one can include combinations that can actually work very well simply does not translate, on any level. In English, an ostricho-camel is nonsense. English sees no reason to think a donkeysheep any more big, ugly, hard to move or unworkable than your ostricho-camel. Both, and crocofant are comprehensible as either biological or linguistic hybrids… and none of them has any more meaning in English than it has likelihood in biology. – Robbie Goodwin Nov 04 '17 at 20:47
  • I'm not confidant enough about it to do more than comment, but the notion of "conflation" seems somewhat relevant and that notion could possibly be divided into "congruent conflations" (or at least "not totally incongruent" ones) to cover examples like "struțo-cămilă" and "[totally] incongruent conflations" (not quite rising to an oxymoron?) for examples like "magaoaie." Your mention of "A socialist political party with super-rich leaders" reminds me a bit of the terms "champagne socialists & on the other end, "cloth coat republicans." – Papa Poule Nov 04 '17 at 22:09
  • @Robbie Goodwin: maybe soon the genetics scientists will be able to grow an ostrich kidney inside or on the skin of a camel. That's the meaning of ostricho-camel - a strange and comical combination that looks like nonsense but sometimes it can work. If the rich socialists desire so, they can actually make the socialist party work. In Romanian, the donkeysheep means sounds like something unworkable and hard to move and therefore it also applies very well to big and unworkable constructions. Also the intonation helps, maybe because maga- sounds similar with mega- – Ark Nov 06 '17 at 09:52
  • @Papa Poule: yes, "champagne socialists" is a very good example. I'm not only looking for portmanteaus, also two word phrases are good. There can be many such examples (and one can even invent them), therefore I'm looking for the most used ones. But lees used ones are very welcomed though. – Ark Nov 06 '17 at 09:57
  • Your translations are clearly literal but that doesn’t mean the words or the concepts mean much at this end. A camel is a horse designed by a committee almost suggests itself but much of why that’s not a camel-horse is that the basic concepts don’t mate. Don’t you think growing a real ostrich kidney on a camel would simply break the whole idea? I don’t think many of us would truly see that a strange and comical combination that looks like nonsense but sometimes it can work at all. You might expand the discussion into an interesting pamphlet with anecdotes, though – Robbie Goodwin Nov 06 '17 at 22:26
  • Are you looking for examples of two animal names used together to signify the traits of something? I can think of pig-dog off the top of my head (for a worthless person). Or a more general concept,like the pushmi-pullyu from Dr Doolittle? – JonLarby Nov 07 '17 at 11:08
  • i guess in English it is more common to expand a bit - like the phrase "a wolf in sheep's clothing" to indicate someone who seems harmless, but isn't. – JonLarby Nov 07 '17 at 11:11
  • BBC Radio 4 just reminded me of the camelopard (now giraffa camelopardalis), an early name for the giraffe which looked a little like a camel and had spots something like a leopard's. The process doesn't seem the same, though. – Robbie Goodwin Nov 07 '17 at 11:46
  • @JonLarby - I changed the question to mention that it doesn't have to be animal combinations. The phrase "a wolf in sheep's clothing" also exists in Romanian but I think it's use is so loaded with distaste that it doesn't feel comical. – Ark Nov 07 '17 at 15:40
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    I would be tempted to call it a "Rube Goldberg device". He was a cartoonist who drew extrarodinarily complicated machines. See for example https://www.rubegoldberg.com/artwork/send-late-stayer-home/?c=45 – Al Maki Jan 06 '18 at 16:32
  • Somewhat surprised at struțo-cămilă being a comical impossibility in Romanian, since its etymon, Greek stroutho-kamēlos, is the word for ostrich; in Ancient Greek, it's a "sparrow-camel". – Nick Nicholas Jul 09 '18 at 06:35

6 Answers6

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In America, we "have" the jackalope, a combination of a jackrabbit and an antelope. It is a creature that resembles a rabbit with antelope horns.

It is referred to as :

  1. a hoax
  2. a mythical creature
  3. a legend

jackalope

In a more formal context, it might be termed a "chimera"

Gary's Student
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the unicorn TFD

Something that is greatly desired but difficult or impossible to find

legendary

lbf
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The feminist slogan "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle," coined by Irina Dunn in 1970, was a variation on an existing form. In turn, it works and is used in other contexts.

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/414150.html

professor_feather
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If you want an idiomatic expression you can say "like chalk and cheese". In plain English you can say a mismatched, ill-matched, poles apart, worlds apart, like day and night, etc.If you want to sound a little scientific, you can say "an asymmetric pair"!

user7498612
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Snark (Snake+Shark) was coined by Lewis Carrol with the "The Hunt for the Snark"and means an imaginary animal. Not to be confused with Snarky (meaning irritable or short-tempered) which seems to have no relation.

Balaz2ta
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Not animal-related but a "chocolate teapot" sprang to mind when I read your question. It comes up in phrases like "that's as useful as a chocolate teapot". Clearly that would be an unlikely combination given that the chocolate would melt with the heat of the tea.

Marie-Helene Dubois
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