From the Batman comics, a batmanteau:
From Wikipedia:
A batarang is a roughly bat-shaped throwing weapon used by the DC Comics superhero Batman. The name is a portmanteau of bat and boomerang, and was originally spelled baterang.
From the Batman comics, a batmanteau:
From Wikipedia:
A batarang is a roughly bat-shaped throwing weapon used by the DC Comics superhero Batman. The name is a portmanteau of bat and boomerang, and was originally spelled baterang.
May 6, 2012 at 8:47 pm |
[…] Arnold Zwicky's Blog A blog mostly about language « A batmanteau […]
May 7, 2012 at 6:50 pm |
I think the original spelling is more accurate…Bat + Boomerang is Baterang, not Batarang – there’s no “ar” to be found in either Wordponent!
May 8, 2012 at 5:30 am |
I imagine that BATERANG was avoided because it was likely to be pronounced in two syllables, with the first syllable BATE pronounced /bet/. BATARANG is less faithful to the contributors orthographically, but it gets the pronunciation right.
August 8, 2013 at 7:58 am |
[…] along with a discussion of the mock chemical element Batmantium. In another posting of that year, “A batmanteau”, you can find the portmanteau batarang (Batman + […]