Victor Steinbok writes to tell me of ESPN’s use of DisAstros to refer to the Houston Astros (a National League baseball team, which, deliciously, plays in Minute Maid, formerly Enron, Park). That’s disaster/disastrous + Astros. A pejorative portmanteau. It’s not just ESPN; thousands of people use the expression about the down-at-the-bottom-of the-league Astros — ruefully, … Continue reading Pejorative portmanteaus