{"id":245,"date":"2015-12-05T17:59:06","date_gmt":"2015-12-06T01:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/?p=245"},"modified":"2016-12-07T00:20:47","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T08:20:47","slug":"custom-made-tri-blends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/?p=245","title":{"rendered":"Custom-Made Tri-Blends"},"content":{"rendered":"

New words come into English in many ways (borrowing, backformation, verbing nouns, acronyms, etc<\/em>), but the most visible word formations in Modern English tend to be\u00a0blends<\/strong>. Blends (or portmanteaus) are created\u00a0when at least two words are shoved together physically and phonetically to form\u00a0a new word. Smog<\/a>, frenemy<\/a>, bloggorhea<\/a>, hacktivist<\/a>, cronut<\/a>, phablet<\/a>, sext<\/a>, guyliner<\/a>; they stick out as\u00a0neologisms, and being visible means they endure\u00a0a lot of public scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Three- to five-part blends are significantly less productive, but there are enough of them to discuss,\u00a0semi-academically. These\u00a0are the most common ones:\u00a0turducken<\/a>, Nabisco<\/a>, Tribeca<\/a>, Benelux<\/a>, CONMEBOL<\/a>, and Croc-gu-phant.<\/p>\n

\"51IG87MxauL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_\"<\/p>\n

Since reading Gretchen McCulloch\u2019s practical explanation of\u00a0shipping name blends on The Toast<\/a>, looking through\u00a0The Portmanteau Dictionary<\/a> (Thurner, 1950), and finding Natalia Beliaeva\u2019s 2014 thesis<\/a> on English blends, I\u2019ve been gathering multi-part blends in a Wordnik list<\/a>. Here’s what I’ve learned:<\/p>\n

THE TOPICS COVERED<\/strong><\/p>\n

Places:\u00a0<\/strong>Benelux, BoCoCa, Chindonesia, Colocaliexas, Dalworthington Gardens, Delmarva, Dowisetrepla, Jabotabek, Lamorinda, Michillinda, Morindette, NoLIta, Nylonkong, SoDoSoPa, Texarkana, Tribeca<\/em>
\nOrganizations:\u00a0<\/strong>CONMEBOL, Dasariski, Filoli, Nabisco, Morzouksnick, Ohaton<\/em>
\nEvents:\u00a0<\/strong>Biz Cas Fri, blizzapocalypsegeddon, Christmahannakwanzadan, NaNoGenMo, NaNoWriMo, Thankshallowistmas<\/em>
\nCommon Nouns and Adjectives:\u00a0<\/strong>afflufemza, ampersand, basticherbator, caublasian, compushency, herohotic, MoSoSo, romzomcom, SoLoMo<\/em>
\nFoods:\u00a0<\/strong>ortanique, peacotum, turducken<\/em>
\nProducts:\u00a0<\/strong>Optacon, sudoopoo<\/em>
\nShipping names for OT3s and broT3s<\/strong> [sampling from Tumblr and fanlore.org<\/a>]: Dalarenzo, Emarianna, Hollenstein, Johnlolly, Jollock, Jollylock, Klarenzo, Klefaroline, LaHollstein, LeeSeungHyun, Lunar Harmony, Major Ravioli, McHalenski, McTatenski, Pearlapidot, Sakata, Siremulus, Snarco, Spannaria, Spemaria, Sterydia, TaeGiKook, TaeKookMin, ToBaeDae,\u00a0YoonMinSeok, YoonSeokNam, Zarriam, Zouiall, Zourry,<\/em>\u00a0etc.<\/p>\n

BLENDING VS CLIPPING<\/strong><\/p>\n

In her conclusions, Beliaeva makes a smart distinction between clipping compounds<\/strong> and blends<\/strong>, determining that there are different motivations and\u00a0methods that lead to their shortening and grouping in certain ways.<\/p>\n

For her, clipping compounds<\/strong> come from existing phrases such as “National Biscuit Company” and “optical to tactile converter” which are then reduced down to their initial sounds to create\u00a0Nabisco and Optacon, respectively. Other clipping compounds include NaNoWriMo<\/a>, Biz Cas Fri<\/a>,\u00a0ampersand, Filoli, SoLoMo, romzomcom, sudoopoo, Tribeca, and\u00a0Dowistrepla<\/a>. There are two-part clipping compounds too, including SoMa<\/a>,\u00a0retcon<\/a>, pro-am<\/a>, sci-fi<\/a>, sitcom<\/a>,\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon<\/a>, and\u00a0MoCap<\/a>.\u00a0In clipping compounds, the words are represented by their first segments (similar to acronyms, but slightly longer).<\/p>\n

Blends<\/strong>, on the other hand, do not come from pre-existing phrases. Their concepts are brought together and shortened into one word simultaneously<\/span>. All of the examples from the first paragraph are blends of this kind. These seem more productive\u00a0than clipping, and usually\u00a0include the first part of one word, and the last part of the other, resulting in a somewhat\u00a0natural-sounding word.<\/p>\n

WILL IT BLEND?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

McCulloch lists a number of factors that go into which names go first and what portions of words are included in blends: overlap, stress match, onset conservation (words starting with more consonants go first), orthographic transparency, and lexical neighborhood evaluation.<\/p>\n

When three words are involved, the result can get unwieldy pretty quickly, so there also may be a bias towards preserving the minimum<\/em>\u00a0of<\/em>\u00a0each word, like the “Z” in Zourry, Zarriam, and Zouiall standing in for One Direction member Zayn, with parts from Louie, Harry, Liam and Niall filling in the rest. (There are many 1D shipping names<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

On the other hand, a number of these creations are\u00a0intentionally comedic (biz cas Fri, blizzapocalypsegeddon, Christmahannakwanzadan, Dowisetrepla<\/em>),\u00a0so\u00a0their length is a feature, not a\u00a0bug.<\/p>\n

BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beliaeva makes a distinction between whole words and partial words, but I won’t here. For me, sometimes “first” and “last” also means the entire word is represented as in John<\/strong> in John<\/strong>lolly and Orinda<\/strong> in Lamorinda<\/strong>.\u00a0Here’s how the multi-part blends break down:<\/p>\n

First-first-first (but not clipping)<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>Benelux, BoCoCa, Delmarva, Jabodetabek, Ohaton, Sakata<\/em><\/p>\n

First-first-last<\/strong>:\u00a0blizzapocalypsegeddon, caublasian, Chindonesia, Christmahannakwanzadan, Colocaliexas, compushency, Dalarenzo, herohotic, LaHollstein, Lamorinda, Lunar Harmony, Major Ravioli, McHalenski, McTatenski, Michillinda, Morindette, Nylonkong, ortanique, Pearlapidot, Siremulus, Spannaria, Spemaria, Texarkana, Thankshallowistmas,\u00a0turducken<\/em><\/p>\n

First-middle-last<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>Croc-gu-phant, Dasaraski, Emarianna, Jollock, Klarenzo, Klefaroline, Por-gua-can, Snarco, Sterydia, Zourry, Zouiall, Zarriam<\/em><\/p>\n

First-last-last<\/strong>: basticherbator,\u00a0Dalworthington Gardens, Hollenstein, Johnlolly, Jollylock, peacotum, Morzouksnick, TaeGiKook<\/em><\/p>\n

VARIANTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is an area near Berkeley, CA known as either Lamorinda (from La<\/strong>fayette, Mor<\/strong>aga and Orinda<\/strong>)\u00a0or\u00a0Morindette (from Mor<\/strong>aga, Orind<\/strong>a, and Lafayette<\/strong>),\u00a0<\/strong>which takes into account “lexical neighborhood evaluation” and\u00a0sounds like “more in debt.”<\/p>\n

Johnlolly, Jollock or Jollylock? In two-person pairings, Sherl<\/strong>ock and Molly<\/strong> are Sherlolly, while\u00a0John<\/strong> and Sherlock<\/strong> are Johnlock. Joining\u00a0the three together, the\u00a0variants branch off from those existing pairings, with\u00a0Jollock reducing Molly further to\u00a0sound like “jaw lock.”<\/p>\n

Carmilla<\/a> shippers can choose between Hollenstein and LaHollstein, Holl<\/strong>is-Lawrence<\/strong>-Karnstein<\/strong>, or La<\/strong>wrence-Holl<\/strong>is-Karnstein.\u00a0<\/strong>Again, pre-existing two-person names like Hollence and Hollstein affect these expansions.<\/p>\n

CONCLUSIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beliaeva proves clipping compounds and blends are similar but different enough to be separated if need be. Blends\u00a0generally follow the guidelines outlined by McCulloch, but\u00a0since each one is created independently, variants are common.<\/p>\n

Three-part blends are generally unproductive\u00a0in English, but internet fandoms have found a use for them in shipping. No evidence currently supports the idea that 3-part shipping blends have increased 3-part blends outside of fandoms, but the internet is large, so it’s possible.<\/p>\n

\"41CWl6SJ5bL\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are too many shipping names to catalog them all, but if you find other multi-part blends, please let me know here or on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New words come into English in many ways (borrowing, backformation, verbing nouns, acronyms, etc), but the most visible word formations in Modern English tend to be\u00a0blends. Blends (or portmanteaus) are created\u00a0when at least two words are shoved together physically and phonetically to form\u00a0a new word. Smog, frenemy, bloggorhea, hacktivist, cronut, phablet, sext, guyliner; they stick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words","cat-6-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4SNLB-3X","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":451,"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions\/451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}