Cell Phones

Null Hypothesis

Consecutive Vowels

Convincing

Malamanteau

Brought to you by wikipedia, xkcd and wikipedia's talk pages

A malamanteau (plural malamanteaux) is a neologism for a portmanteau created by incorrectly combining a malapropism with a neologism. It is itself a portmanteau of malapropism and portmanteau. In a less strict definition, a portmanteau of a malapropism with another word can also be considered a malamanteau. The contained malapropism must be typically a very common one, probably most people are not aware of, in order to be able to regain the meaning of a malamanteau.

A malamanteau often is created when somebody tries to use a neologism (alternatively, an idiom) but mistakenly confuses a word with another one. However, unlike a malapropism or an eggcorn, the fumbled word is not completely replaced, but merely transfixed to the new one. A famous example is: "misunderestimate" which was popularized by the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. Probably it was intended to be "underestimate" but mistakenly jumbled with "misunderstand."


Examples:

Somebody describes his misunderstanding of what someone was saying by stating, "I misconscrewed it up."

Somenone explains his inability to talk while being upset by saying he was "flustrated."

A meaningful malamanteau is "ambiviolent," as in: "Beatrix Kiddo in Kill Bill was ambiviolent. She didn't know who to kill first."

Honor Societies

Self Description

Admin Mourning

Dirty Harry

Researcher Translation

Bag Check

Static

Fall Foliage

Scary