From Hilary Price’s Rhymes With Orange:
The portmanteau works especially well for people who have a tensed, raised variant of /æ/ in marathon, a vowel approximating or merging with the vowel these people have in mare. (This doesn’t work for me, but it does for a fair number of speakers.)
Searches on “nightmarathon” bring up mostly references to “night marathons”, that is, marathons held at night. But there are a few more portmanteau examples in there.
July 1, 2012 at 3:43 am |
[…] continues her series on playful portmanteaus — most recent examples I’ve posted on here (nightmarathon) and here (floorganized) — with Petris (pet + […]