One of the ways new words are created is by combining two existing words. The result is a portmanteau or blended word. And there are many opinions on which parts of words, or whole words, put together count as blended words or portmanteaus.
We might discuss smog (a blend of smoke and fog), motel (motor and hotel), or dumbfound (dumb and confound).
Emoticon (those horrible little yellow things) is made of emotion and icon.
The more you think, the more words you realise are pieced together: breathalyser, malware, sitcom, glamping, and many more.
Some words you might not think of as blends: fortnight (fourteen and nights); internet (interconnected network); stash (store and cache).
Then there are words which are becoming portmanteaus through ignorance. Alright is never all right.
Similarly, “on to” is two words. Onto is not a word. You will find varying opinions on this, but my reasoning is that “on” is an adverb, “to” is a preposition. Not only are these different types of word, they portray different movements.
“Into” can be one word because walking into something is one movement. Mind you, it is possibly just more acceptable because it has been one word for a long time.
Anyone, anything, anybody are fine as one word as they can refer to one thing. But “any more” is two words. Any and more can both be determiners, or pronouns, or (in more’s case) an adverb. We rarely combine determiners in the English language.
Some pairs of words should always remain two words: hot seat (in the hot seat); front man (the band’s front man), front line (front line services); back seat (back seat driver); man made (created by humans).
Some words which should be single entities are sometimes broken into two: mainstay, counterpart, artwork. I was greatly amused recently to see “molly coddled” as two words. Who is this mystery woman?
Sometimes there is a choice to use one or two words depending on context: underwater, overtime, anyway.
The etymologies of words which have become joined can be fascinating. Electrocute (electric and execute) was specifically coined to describe state-ordained death in the electric chair.
However, there is a term that should be two words, which is often used as a single word, that really annoys me.
Under way is two words. When the BBC tell us: “counting is underway at the by-election” I experience physical pain.
I hate that this perfectly logical nautical term is being crushed into an amalgam that loses the expressive fluency of its proper meaning.
Word of the week
Eristic (adjective)
Describes an argument that aims to dispute another’s argument rather than search for truth. EG: “You’ll find many who indulge in eristic debate for the intellectual enjoyment of it. I’m one of them.”
Read the latest Oh my word! every Saturday in The Courier. Contact me at sfinan@dctmedia.co.uk
