Weird Word - Portmanteau is... (3)

...a word that blends sounds and combines the meaning of two others (Concise Oxford English Dictionary).

A word like...                   M E T R O S E X U A L.

Metrosexual, according to OED, is 'a straight urban male who enjoys shopping, fashion, and similar interests traditionally associated with women or homosexual men'.

Iconic example of the metrosexual type is depicted in the tv show Queer Eye (2003).

OED dates it's origins to the 1990's, n' highlights the portmanteau formation:

Metrosexual, one may argue, isn't simply a blend of metropolitan n' heterosexual.

 Metrosexual is rather formed on the pattern of Homosexual.

-sexual is actually a derivational suffix added to Homo (Greek, same).

Then, other words followed the pattern:

Bi- Tran- Pan- Poly- 

& Hetero-sexual.

I support this argument on two evidences from English.

1. The suffix -sexual was dissociated from homosexual

during the emergency of the gay liberation movements, 1960's.

Homophile

was favoured

by 

gay activists,

who preferred the phrase homophile movement 

- a way to dissociate gay identity from a concept based uniquely on 

sexual behaviour.

2. With all respect to the OED, Wikipedia -

apparently quoting from Collins Unabridged English Dictionary

- defines a more faithful concept of metrosexual.

"A man, - especially one living in an urban, post-industrial, capitalist culture - who is essentially meticulous about his grooming n' appearance, typically spending a significant amount of time n' money on shopping as part of this."

South Park S08E07 - South Park is Gay! Spoof of Queer Eye.

The concept of metrosexual is often associated to straight men - 
one can confirm this on online dictionaries.

I believe this is a deliberate choice of word to dissociate
straight men who have a marked look from 
gay men who stereotypically have marked looks.

Daffy Thomas in Little Britain & Bruno in Bruno, the Movie

A legitimate concept of metrosexual, though, goes beyond t' straight sphere.

And, just to remind, gay men not often adopt a metrosexual style.

Normal, Ohio - American Sitcom (2000)

 Normal, Ohio depicted a typical American blue collar man,
interpreted by John Goodman who happened to be gay.

Also, other styles can be typically associated to gay men.

 



Bear
style

for
instance.








Mark Simpson, the English journalist who coined the term metrosexual,
stated in a 2002 online article - Salon.com - that a
typical metrosexual may be officially gay, straight, or bisexual.

As a result of this portmanteau, others followed on the same pattern.

Retrosexual   -   Übersexual   -   Wo-metrosexual

Gastrosexual   -                                                                 -   Omnisexual

And even Trysexual like Jones!

I mean Samantha Jones from Sex & The City.

Comming Up...

Staycation, and T W E R K!

Weird Word - Portmanteau is... (2)

...a word that blends sounds and combines the meaning of two others (Concise Oxford English Dictionary).

...a word such as:

B O O T Y L I C I O U S.

Bootylicious has officially made into the OXford English Dictionary in 2004.

Bootylicious, as the OED defines, is an informal word of American English. It's said of a woman, sexually appealing.

OED dates it's origins to the 1990's, n' highlights the portmanteau formation: 

Bootylicious coinage is attributed to American rapper Snoop Dog in 1992, according to Wikipedia. 

However, the rapper may just have known to the media a word that should've been in use by his community at the time.

In 2001, Destiny's Child,

produced a hit named

bootylicious.

This made the word 

more widely known - thus,

worthy of its OED entry.

Portmanteaus with delicious are noted since the 1950's - OED wise.

Babelicious - Glammalicious - Chocolicious - Chavlicious.

Fergalicious - song by Fergie & Black Eyed Peas.

Candylicious - theme party at a pub.

Once we learn, it's easy to recognise a portmanteau with delicious. 

And also to coin your own word, like...

Jonesylicious - a (remote?) selfie by Jones.

Or,

Whateveryoufancylicious.

Comming Up...

Metrosexual, Staycation, and T W E R K!

Weird Word - Portmanteau is... (1)

...a large travelling bag made of stiff leather and opening into two equal parts (Concise Oxford English Dictionary).

    

Portmanteau is also a WORD,

used as a modifier.

So, a portmanteau film is a film that consists of 

two or more parts, aspects, or qualities.

Twilight Zone, The Movie (1983) - Creepshow (1982) - Pulp Fiction (1994)

Portmanteau Films, aka Anthology Film, Omnibus Film.

Portmanteau is also a concept that can be applied to words.

Portmanteau Word: a word that blend sounds and combine 
the meanings of two others (Concise OED).

Some portmanteaus, like sexting, are quite new in English.

It's quite easy to get good information in the web
about the meaning and origin of recent portmanteau words.
Regardless, I too want to share my contribution about the subject here.

Here are some portmanteaus that everyone above the age of 30 

must have once found unusual / weird.

Prequel

Pre + Sequel. A prefix meaning 'before' plus a noun. 

It has origins in the 1970's according to Concise OED - though wikipedia claims 1958 using OED reference.

Now that prequels are so popular in cinema,

the word took a life of its own.

Threequel - Interquel - Midquel

Gimme-a-breakquel.

 Vlog - Video + Blog

It has origins in the 2000's with the rise of video blogs - probably.

It's one of those words linked to the Internet that now

is everywhere in English - like Blogsphere.

Photolog - Litblog - Flog

Weblog is among a prolific spring of 
other internet related portmanteaus.

Webcam - Webmaster - Webisode - Webinar - Webcast

It doesn't matter how bizarre they may've sounded at first,

we all got used to these portmanteaus.

Comming Up...

Bootylicious, Metrosexual, Staycation, and more.