English changes all the time. Often, the language changes in response to what’s happening in the world, and something that’s becoming more and more popular in English to blend words together to create new words, like blog (web log).
Blend words are usually created in one of two ways:
1) by adding the first part of the first word to the second part of the second word, e.g. smoke + fog = smog
2) by combining the beginnings of two words, e.g. cybernetic + organism = cyborg
Below is a list of blend words (sometimes also called portmanteaus). See if you can match the blended word with their two original words. Once you’ve had a go at guessing them, check your answers below, then, why not have a go at making up some of your own!
| hangry | mass/prestige |
| mansplaining | chill/relax |
| masstige | glamorous/camping |
| emoticon | emote/icon |
| glamping | man/explaining |
| spork | Nigeria/Hollywood |
| brunch | global/English |
| chillax | breakfast/lunch |
| motel | spoon/fork |
| globish | Bombay/Hollywood |
| bionic | biology/electronic |
| Nollywood | motor/hotel |
| Bollywood | hungry/anger |
