“Portmanteau” is a blending of two or more words to form one; for example smog (smoke and fog), brunch (breakfast and lunch), Wikipedia (Wiki and Encyclopaedia) or to be more familiar Tanzania (Tanganyika and Zanzibar).
Linguistically speaking, portmanteau was popularised by English author and mathematician Lewis Carroll in the 19th century, very fond of playing with words. German poet and journalist Heinrich Heine of the same era also loved the lingual form and created at least 60 “portmanteaux” (note the French plural form). In Kiswahili portmanteaux are quite common too, e.g. Lelemama (a traditional East African coast dance), Darubini (microscope), Runinga (television), etc.
German writer, Heinrich Heine, fond of portmanteux...
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