Must-Know Word Blends in Modern English Vocabulary | Hangry, Kenergy, Brunch

Today I want to invite you into the world of English portmanteaus.

And if you're wondering what on earth is a portmanteau,

I want you to imagine this.

Imagine opening a suitcase and on both sides you pack half

of an English language word. Then use zip up that suitcase. And there you go.

A whole new word emerges,

carrying the essence meaning or feeling of those two words combined.

For example, if you put together part of the word breakfast,

part of the word lunch, you get brunch. This is a portmanteau,

also known as a word blend in English.

These words are not just word play,

they're a creative twist in the English language,

reflecting current trends, technological advances,

even our daily habits. As a result,

English speakers are constantly developing and using new word

blends in English.

Understanding current portmanteau not only helps you better

understand the conversations around you,

there are also words that you can add into your vocabulary,

helping you sound more natural, more current,

and more fluent in your English language. So whether you're a foodie,

a tech enthusiast,

or someone who just wants to enhance your overall English vocabulary,

I want you to stick with me as we explore the world of current and

quirky English portmanteaus.

Now, very quickly, if this is your first time here, welcome. I'm Annemarie,

an English confidence and fluency coach.

Everything I do is designed to help you get the confidence you want for your

life and work in English.

If you'd love to discover years of confident English lessons just like this one,

you can find them all over my speak Confident English website.

For our list of portmanteaus today, I've got four distinct categories.

Number one, food and fun category number two, tech talk.

Number three, modern lifestyle. And then we'll finish with category number four,

people and relationships with each one I share with you today I'll share

what the portmanteau is, the words and meaning that it's combining,

and I'll give you an example sentence so you can see how it's used as well.

So our first category, food and fun.

portmanteau number one is flexitarian.

This combines the words flexible and vegetarian.

As you might imagine when this word is used,

it describes someone who follows a vegetarian diet most of the

time, but occasionally includes meat, for example.

Due to health concerns,

my grandmother follows a flexitarian diet limiting her consumption

of meat. Number two, glamping, glam,

and camping. Glamping is a form of camping. However,

the facilities and accommodations are far more luxurious,

and I might say my sister won't go camping unless

it's glamping. The third word in this category, unfortunately,

is a word I could use to describe myself from time to time.

The word is hangry, combining the words hungry and angry.

Do you know anyone who gets irritable and frustrated when they're hungry?

If you do, then this is a word you might use to describe them in those moments.

For example,

let's say you're traveling with a friend on vacation and at one point in the day

you might say, it seems like you're getting a little bit hangry.

Let's get a bite to eat before we do anything else.

And portmanteau number four for this category, staycation,

blending the words, stay and vacation.

If you enjoy a staycation, it means that you take some time off.

You enjoy a holiday or vacation, but you don't travel,

you stay home or very close to home. For example,

during the pandemic,

many people chose to enjoy staycations in the summer months. Alright,

now it's time to move on to category number two where we have four more word

blends focused on technology.

Number one here is doom scrolling,

or you might also hear doom surfing.

This is a blend of doom and gloom along with either scrolling or

surfing the internet.

Have you ever spent too much time online scrolling through your social media

feed or news articles? And during that period of time,

your anxiety or feeling of negativity goes up significantly?

If you've experienced that,

then you've definitely engaged in some doom scrolling or doom surfing online.

And here's how you might use it in a sentence.

I had to find ways to quit doom scrolling during my free time.

Next, metaverse. Combining Meta and Universe,

a metaverse is a virtual environment created for social

connections through immersive technology.

For example, during the pandemic,

the gaming industry was buzzing with excitement about the metaverse.

Number three for this category is etiquette.

This word blend combines the words internet and etiquette.

Etiquette lays out the rules of conduct and politeness when

communicating online. As you might be aware on social media platforms,

some people forget they're in etiquette and say things online

in chat rooms and in comments that they would never say aloud in real life.

And number four is a word that you probably use quite often and you may not have

known that it was a portmanteau webinar. This of course,

blends the word web with seminar.

If you've ever attended a presentation or a seminar that was entirely online,

then you've attended a webinar and here's a sentence you might use.

Our team enjoyed a recent webinar on current AI technology in education,

and with that it's time to move on to category number three.

We have six portmanteauss here to talk about modern lifestyle.

Number one is biohack.

Combining biology and hack a biohack is an instance of

self-improvement.

That includes strategic experimentation with your diet,

technology, hormones and so on.

And if you've experimented with biohacks,

you might say eating oily fish is one way to biohack

your longevity.

Number two in this category is situationship blending

situation and relationship.

A situationship is more than a friendship,

but less than a committed relationship.

It lacks the typical norms and expectations of a committed

romantic relationship. For example,

Melissa didn't want to end up in another situationship after the pandemic.

Number three here is slacktivism combining slacking and

activism.

And this describes activities that use the internet to get support for

political organizations or social causes without much effort.

For example, with more social media and internet access,

slacktivism is on the rise. Number four here is tip deflation,

blending, tipping and inflation.

I want to pay attention to the word tipping here because this isn't something

that happens worldwide. I'll tell you here in the United States,

if you go out to a restaurant for lunch or dinner,

it's common to leave extra money on the table for the server

as a way to thank them for their meal.

And this really isn't something that is voluntary,

it's really more obligatory. It's part of their overall salary.

It's expected that customers who visit a restaurant will add an

extra tip at the end of their meal. And as you might guess,

tip flash describes the increased rate at which

customers are expected to leave tips for a service.

And you could imagine someone saying,

tip ation has gotten out of hand in North America.

I have no idea how much to tip anymore. Number five, here is workation.

And if you think back to our word blend staycation,

you might know exactly what this one means. It blends work and vacation.

It's used to describe a working vacation,

an opportunity for someone to travel but still work remotely.

For example, I am looking forward to my upcoming workation in Oslo.

And the last one in this category is millennials.

This combines generation Z with the word millennial.

It's used to define a microgeneration of individuals born

between 1992 and 1998.

And here's an example sentence,

millennials remember using landline telephones and experiencing the initial

rise of smartphones.

It's time for our final category with four more portmanteau related to people

and relationships.

The first on our list is romance combining brother and romance.

It's used to describe a close platonic relationship between or

among male friends. For example, although they only met two days ago,

their bro is strong. Number two on this list,

frenemy combining friend and enemy.

These two words are obviously contradictory, so let's talk about its meaning.

A frenemy is someone who pretends to be a friend despite clear

dislike or rivalry. For example, in Hollywood,

many actors have frenemies and feel that they can't really trust anyone.

If you've seen the very popular movie Barbie,

then you might know this portmanteau Kenergy.

This combines Kendall with energy.

It's used to describe support for women in a very open and

confident way. For example,

Richard had major Kenenergy while supporting his wife's new business launch.

And now our last word on this list today is mansplain.

Combining the words man and explain this means to

explain something to a woman in a condescending way despite the reality that

she has complete knowledge of a particular topic or issue.

For example, someone might say,

thank you for mansplaining the consequences of drinking coffee.

As a pregnant woman,

you now have 18 current portmanteaus to add to

your daily English conversations. And I would love for you to practice.

I want you to choose two or three word blends from this list today that you

really love, and try using them in your own example sentences. If you want,

you can always share your examples with me down in the comments below.

While you're there, if there's a portmanteau that you know about,

that you've heard often read online or maybe even used from time to time,

I would love for you to share it down below as well.

It'll help others in the speak confident English community,

expand their English knowledge and know how.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

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Thanks again, and I look forward to seeing you next time.