August162022

mortimermcmirestinks:

aimarann:

mortimermcmirestinks:

orteil42:

absolutely zero relation between italian portamento and french porte-manteau

for anyone else curious:

portamento = Italian, “slidey music thing”

porte-manteau = French, “suitcase thing”

portmanteau = English, “a new word made from two other words”

they are all related to each other etymologically but they do mean three completely different things

It would be a coat hanger and not a suitcase in french. A “suitcase word” would be “a new word made from two other words”.

oh, damn, you right about the french thing, “porte-manteau” means coat hanger in french, not suitcase. I googled hastily and was confused

so, revised:

portamento = Italian, “slidey music thing”

porte-manteau = French, “coat hanger thing”

portmanteau = English, “a new word made from two other words”

they are all related to each other etymologically but they do mean three completely different things

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