Etymology Word of the Week – As some of you know, in addition to working in the Admissions Office, I also teach Latin at Saint Ignatius and am something of a "word nerd."  Thus, each week, I’ll sneak a vocabulary word (sometimes derived from Latin, sometimes not) into the e-news.  Here, then, is this week’s edition of the Etymology Word of the Week.  

 

Portmanteau

 

Definition:  “A word that combines the form and meaning of two or more other words; a blended word such as smog or brunch.”

Origin/Derivation: From the French porter meaning “to carry, to wear” and the French manteau meaning “cloak”.  The word was coined by Lewis Carroll in reference to the sort of nonsensical words (such as “bandersnatch”) that he invented for his now-famous poem Jabberwocky.

Related Words:  porter, transport, passport, portal, import, report, etc. and mantle, dismantle, and manta (as in devil ray)

(All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com)

 

 

 

 

Trivia Question of the Week:

What artist, perhaps best known for his painting The Starry Night (1889), famously cut off part of his own left ear?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANSWER:

Vincent van Gogh