Archive for the ‘Playful morphology’ Category

Newer Entries »

Pornmanteaus

July 6, 2011

From Ann Burlingham on July 4 (slightly edited):

I’m plowing through the second season of “Bones” when a character explains his familiarity with a topless college woman site by saying “I clicked on a pop-up and got caught in a pornado”.

Naturally, I love the word “pornado” [porn + tornado]. I wasn’t surprised to find it wasn’t new: the Urban Dictionary entry (here) gave me a smile.

Of course I wondered about other pornmanteaus (not my invention; see, for example, the site Pornmanteau – The Word Combo Dicktionary).

(more…)

Posted in Language play, Playful morphology, Portmanteaus | 4 Comments »

telephon-

July 4, 2011

A combination of two things: telephonoscopy (also telephonotomy) on this blog, here; and a recent card to me from Chris Ambidge, reporting a friend (observing him putting shirts and towels into the automatic washing machine) saying jocularly, “Ah, you’re committing laundricide”.

The common factor is “combining forms”, learnèd elements that are mostly like compound elements but somewhat like derivational affixes: -(o)scopy (and -(o)tomy) and –(i)cide.

(more…)

Posted in Compounds, Derivation, Morphology, Playful morphology, Portmanteaus | 5 Comments »

Dinosaur awesomeness

June 21, 2011

(Link from Karen Davis) a Dinosaur Comics on modifier inflation over time and on portmanteaus (or portmanteaux):

Awesometastic looks like awesome with the libfix -tastic (though most of the -tastic examples have a noun as first element: carpet-tastic, scab-tastic, dicktastic, etc.). But then playful word formation is, well, inventive.

Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Modification, Playful morphology, Portmanteaus | 3 Comments »

Zippy Zombie

May 28, 2011

Today’s Zippy, with several treats:

(more…)

Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Playful morphology | Leave a Comment »

The Boring Store

May 28, 2011

Through McSweeney’s, a pointer to The Boring Store in Chicago (1331 N. Milwaukee Ave.), with a wonderful website. Part of the store’s sign:

Ironic reversal, attraction by denial: “the only store in Chicago that denies its own existence”. The store bills itself in one place, positively, as “Chicago’s only Secret Agency Supply Store” (it actually sells disguise kits, X-ray specs, and other spy gear for kids) and in another, negatively, as “Not a Clandestine Supplier of Espionagical Wares”.

(more…)

Posted in Language play, Playful morphology, Writing | Leave a Comment »

The marmaxi

May 24, 2011

Today’s Rhymes With Orange:

A marmaxi is a giant martini — the word resulting from a playful reanalysis of martini as mar + tini (though the Martini of Martini e Rossi, the vermouth makers, is an Italian patronymic from the personal name Martino, i.e. Martin, so that historically martin is a unit). Compare the martini variants the appletini and the okratini, portmanteaus in which the -tini is contributed by martini.

(more…)

Posted in Language and food, Language of clothing, Language play, Libfixes, Playful morphology, Portmanteaus | 6 Comments »

Portmanteau to libfix

May 22, 2011

OUT magazine June/July 2011, p. 21, letters about Glenn Greenwald:

I could not admire Greenwald more – they don’t call him Glennzilla for nothin’. (Glenn Marc)

Glennzilla’s writing is often depressing, … but following his column has made me a more savvy observer of our political process. (Bob S.)

Yes, Glennzilla (many more cites), attaching the libfix -zilla to Greenwald’s first name. In turn, -zilla has been liberated from Godzilla, which began life as a portmanteau in Japanese (Gojira) — a not uncommon development of a libfix from a portmanteau.

(more…)

Posted in Libfixes, Morphology, Playful morphology, Portmanteaus | 10 Comments »

-sauruses

May 1, 2011

From Chris Ambidge yesterday, a set of images that he collected for me. Most of them I’ve posted on my X blog, because of their “adult” content (I’ll post a list of these soon), but here’s a whimsical one (from a Finnish site) that’s WordPressable:

Beware of automobile-devouring dinosaurs (species Autophagosaurus?)!

And then, on an entirely different project, having to do with uses of the word faggotry, I came across this jocular innovation, Fagasaurus, on a t-shirt:

(Lots of other references to Fagasaurus and Fagasaurus rex, which is presumably the species illustrated above, the totally gay Tyrannosaurus rex, the king of queers.)

(more…)

Posted in Gender and sexuality, Language play, Libfixes, Playful morphology | 5 Comments »

Data points: playful libfixes 11/18/10

November 18, 2010

Paul Frank to ADS-L today:

Dramarama: not the alternative rock band or the British TV series but the word used to describe the dramatizing of events that are either trivial or ought to be considered trivial. I don’t see it in the OED. The word is good enough for the Washington Post:

Over the past two decades, the reputation of the entire royal family has steadily declined from regal to rancid. There was the divorce of Charles’s brother, Andrew, not to mention further dramarama earlier this year when his former wife, the Duchess of York (“Fergie”), was caught on video arranging payment for access to her ex.

I pointed to earlier postings (with comments) on this blog, here and here, noting the profusion of attested -((o)r)ama words, beyond anything the OED could cope with, though a surprising (to my mind) number have been included.

 

Posted in Language play, Morphology, Playful morphology | 2 Comments »

Exuberant morphology

August 20, 2010

After I posted a link to Gay Pimp’s (Jonny McGovern‘s) “Soccer Practice” video on my X blog (here; note that this is X-rated territory), an appreciative friend sent along a link to Cazwell’s video “Ice Cream Truck” (Luke Cazwell, né Lucas Cazuela). Two outrageous fags doing white rap in a street-black style to a gay-disco beat. Tremendously unsubtle, campy, and also gay-affirming and often joyous.

Cazwell managed to get one of his videos (available for viewing here, with music that is, like McGovern’s, easily available on CD), “All Over Your Face” — yes, it means just what you think it does — banned from the LOGO channel. It has the memorable lyrics:

I masturbated till my K-Y faded [unnh] … I’m exhausticated

Exhausticated is the point at hand — a piece of “exuberant morphology”, playing on exhausted and exploiting that extra morphological material to go beyond it (as well as to make the line scan): if you’re exhausticated, you’re thoroughly exhausted.

(more…)

Posted in Language play, Playful morphology | Leave a Comment »

Newer Entries »