Hi, everybody.
My name is Shauna, and this is the American English Podcast.
My goal here is to teach you the English spoken in the United States.
Through common expressions, pronunciation tips and interesting cultural snippets or stories.
I hope to keep this fun, useful and interesting.
Let's do it.
Hi, everyone.
In this episode, Liz and I are going to play a game with common portmanteaus.
The word portmanteau originally comes from French and from my understanding it's sort of a leather bag that you can carry on vacations, that you can travel with and you can shove stuff inside of it.
In English, however, a portmanteau is a combination of two or more words to make one word.
I gave a few examples of this in previous episodes.
For example, in episode number 70, I mentioned that Elvis Presley launched his career playing a genre of music called rockabilly.
The word rockabilly combines the words rock and hillbilly and the genre combines influences from rock music with country.
So the word makes sense.
Rockabilly is a portmanteau.
In episode number 58, I talked about laws regarding exotic animal ownership in U.S. states.
And in the chat I mentioned that there are even zonkies and zorses in the US which are both portmanteaus.
Zonkies are hybrids of donkeys with zebras. and zorses are hybrids of horses with zebras.
They look actually very cool.
Just take a look at the images on my Instagram for episode number 58.
My Instagram you can find at American English Podcast.
So when animals are crossbred, it's common to create portmanteaus out of the two names of the original animal.
So you may have heard of ligers, which is an offspring of a lion and a tiger, or even a labradoodle, a mix between a labrador dog and a poodle.
In pop culture...
A lot of Americans and pop culture magazines like to create portmanteaus of iconic couples.
For example, when Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner were together, we called them Bennifer.
Or when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were a couple, we called them Brangelina.
Anyway, today Liz is going to be on the show and we will be talking about portmanteaus that are commonly used in conversation.
So I actually found a massive list of portmanteaus in English on Wikipedia and took out 40 that I find very common.
We will be playing a game with these words.
All right, let's welcome Liz.
Hi, Liz.
Hi, Shanna.
Welcome back on the podcast.
Thanks for having me.
Basically, today we're going to be talking about portmanteaus.
Had you heard of portmanteaus before?
No.
That is not a word that is in my vocabulary.
Okay.
It's actually not something that I think people normally talk about.
They use these words.
Yeah.
No.
When you said like oh, it's words like fro-yo and things like that, I was like I couldn't even think of anything else because it's just so ingrained in my vocabulary.
I use these all the time.
I didn't even think of these as being separate types of words.
Exactly.
So I think that's why the list is just really fun to kind of go through.
I didn't look at the list specifically too in-depth again after I kind of picked from that Wikipedia page.
But I know they're funny and I don't know necessarily the both of the words that were combined in order to create them.
So I think this is going to be kind of funny.
Let's go through the directions from the list of portmanteaus.
I will choose a portmanteau for Liz and she will try and guess the two words that were combined to create the word.
She will then have to say something about the word, and she can say whatever she wants.
So this will kind of be spontaneous, maybe something that comes to her mind when she hears it, or potentially use it in a story or just a sentence.
In any case, there will be two points.
So one for guessing the two words used in the portmanteau and one point for coming up with a use for it.
And then of course, we will switch after her turn is over.
So she will pick a word out for me.
Does that sound good?
That sounds good.
I was hoping that this wasn't just a pop quiz for me.
Okay.
No, no, no.
No, you get to do it for me too and see how stumped I am with some of these.
All right.
So we have this list in front of us.
Do you have your list open?
Yes.
Okay.
We'll start with hangry.
Hangry.
So this happens to me a lot.
It's hungry and angry.
You put it together.
You're hangry.
So you're angry because you're hungry.
Frequently, especially when we're on vacation, you know, in the morning, when you don't really have breakfast yet and you're getting ready, you're trying to plan the day and I just start to get upset about like okay, let's just get going.
Like, we got to get out there.
We got to go see stuff.
I'm getting frustrated because I am hungry.
I haven't eaten that morning.
We need to get down to breakfast and I will calm down.
So I love that term.
I don't know when this term was actually created.
It doesn't feel like it was that long ago, like definitely in the past 10 years.
Yeah.
But it's something that I definitely relate to as well.
People become very irritable when they don't have food.
That's one of the reasons I always carry snacks with me.
If you look inside my purse I have like five granola bars, fruit snacks, fruit in general.
To avoid that.
Do you normally carry stuff around with you to not get hangry?
No, I just let it ride.
Nice.
All right.
So you get two points for that.
Good use.
And the words are correct.
Hungry and angry make angry.
Okay.
All right.
Your turn.
You get to choose one.
Let's go with workaholic.
Okay.
So workaholic, I think this one might be even easy for the listeners, combines work and alcoholic.
So an alcoholic is, of course, someone who is addicted to alcohol or who wouldn't be able to control their intake of alcohol.
And so when you are a workaholic, it's also when you overwork, when you You know you can't really stop.
You can't control yourself.
So someone that might work up until maybe I don't know 11 o'clock at night and then wake up first thing in the morning opening their phone and checking their email we would call them a workaholic.
An example of it?
I mean, I guess that's a good example of it, right?
Good enough?
Do I get two points?
I'd say you get two points.
Maybe one and a half.
There was no concrete example.
I don't know.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Who's a workaholic?
Okay, let's think about this.
I don't even know people that are workaholics.
Well, I do know that Liz's boss writes to her on weekends and asks her to complete tasks.
So I guess that is kind of forcing you to be a workaholic.
Normally, I think workaholics are workaholics by choice, though.
I don't think you seem like the type of person that would choose to spend your Saturday doing law paperwork.
No, I would not choose that.
But when you wake up to 10 emails at 6 a.m. on a Sunday, you respond.
All right.
So Liz is a workaholic, not by choice, by force.
So do I get two?
Can I get two?
You get two right.
Next one oh, back knee, back knee.
So back knee is a combination of the word back, b-a-c-k.
So you're behind your front of the human body, your midsection, the back part of your midsection, behind part of your midsection i guess i shouldn't use the word in the explanation um And acne.
So when you have like lots of zits and pimples, blemishes all over your face,
So bacne is when you have acne on your back.
Yes.
It's not very attractive.
So an example of bacne?
I guess there's no like example.
That's not kind of gross, but But my mom used to tell me that when she and my dad were younger they like met when they were like 21.
And my dad was still like playing sports and stuff.
He would sometimes get back me.
And then she enjoyed getting to pop the pimples on his back, which is so gross.
But that's the first thing I thought of.
All right.
That definitely gives you two points.
Back knee.
I don't think anyone's a fan of acne and it's.
I don't know if it's worse on your back or I think it's just surprising when you see it on someone's back.
You're like, Oh, that's there.
Interesting.
Yeah.
All right.
Your turn.
Okay.
A word for Shauna.
Let's go with bromance.
Okay, bromance is a combination of I guess it would be brother technically and romance, or just bro and romance.
I think probably just bro.
Okay, so there is a difference between bro and brother.
Like a brother, we just talk about their family members, he's my brother.
But when someone's a bro...
It kind of gives the impression that they're a douche.
I'm trying to think of an appropriate way to explain it.
Someone that's a bro that they might be familiar with even.
Like the guys on like Entourage.
Okay.
What characteristics make them a bro?
For me it's.
The first thing that comes to mind is someone that thinks very highly of themselves and tries to be cool, but they don't really come across as cool.
I think like fratty.
So like people who are in fraternities.
Their like main goals are like looking cool and partying and like getting girls.
Right.
It's not a positive term.
When there's a bromance, usually there's two guys that are bros or they're very close.
They have a very close relationship and they do a lot of things together.
It's almost as if they're like BFFs, best friends forever, right?
I definitely use it when I see two guys are bonding heavily.
I feel like most people know some people in their lives where these two guys are always together and not in a romantic way.
It's just if you invite Kevin over, then Scott's coming too.
Right.
You know that they're coming as a package deal.
They're always together.
Like they're just the closest of friends and we give it a, you know, fun nickname, bromance.
All right.
So I didn't really come up with an example.
Do I get one point?
Two points?
We'll go one and a half.
One and a half.
All right.
Okay.
Next one for Liz.
I'm going to do, let's see here.
Pleather.
Okay.
Well, the easy part of it, leather.
It's the fabric that comes like from a cow, leather.
The ple part, plastic.
Is that right?
Yeah, it's right.
Plastic leather.
Plastic leather.
Okay.
So your vegans out there can use it.
So it's just like a cheaper fabric that's made to look like leather.
You know, if you're shopping at, say, like H&M, and you see something, you're like, is this leather?
And then you check the price, and it's only $20.
And you're like, oh, no, this is not leather.
This is pleather.
Exactly.
Do you have a sort of negative impression of this word?
Yeah, I think...
Generally, I think a lot of things start calling themselves like vegan leather.
Now actually, to make it not use the word pleather because it is such like a negative connotation.
You think of things that are really cheap, versus just an alternative to non-renewable resources, as in the leather industry?
So yeah, it definitely has like a negative connotation.
So you kind of have to be careful when you use it, you know, if you're trying to be nice.
Yeah, I definitely think vegan leather sounds so much better.
I think of when I think of pleather is prostitutes.
Know what I think of?
Your boots with the fur.
Yeah, I got rid of it.
Shauna had these wonderful pleather boots.
And I will say pleather because they were pleather boots when we lived in Berlin that she glued fake fur to the top of them.
And then she tried to sell these boots in the flea market.
No, I don't think I glued that fur to the top.
I think it came like that.
It was like a special treatment.
So even worse.
Eye candy.
People looked at me and were like, wow, she's got everything going.
Oh, yeah.
Those pleather boots.
They were something.
Yeah.
Well, you got to have those good pictures of the past where you question your style choice.
All right.
So you get two points for that, Liz.
Good.
Okay.
Shauna, you are going to get the word.
Manny.
Manny.
So it's funny when you say this term, because the first thing I think of is a manicure, because we often shorten manicure to Manny M-A-N-I.
But M-A-N-N-Y, which is what is written here, actually refers to a man.
Nanny.
Most times I think nannies are women or females.
And so when you come across a male who is working as a nanny, someone who is taking care of someone else's children, possibly even living in the house with the family, then we would call them a nanny.
Yeah.
An example.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So actually, there used to be a TV show on, I think it was Beverly Hills Nannies or something.
It had some clever name to it.
But I remember watching a few episodes where families would hire nannies specifically because they wanted their sons to have a companion.
Sometimes even because there was no father figure.
And so they said this would be kind of a replacement.
Not a replacement, but you know some sort of father figure in the house.
Two points?
Two points.
Yay.
All right.
Next one.
Liz.
Oh, I've got a challenging one for you.
Spam.
Spam.
Spam.
I looked at this one this morning and I was like, I'm not certain.
I know half of it.
The am part is for ham.
Right when I pulled this list, I had to look it up.
I thought that's really annoying.
I need to know what the SP stands for.
What is it?
It's spiced.
Spiced?
I know it's hot because I don't think of spam being spiced, but...
Well, I know what it is.
I just didn't know what the portmanteau was.
And that is not how I pronounced that word either when you first sent it to me.
Portmanteau.
I called them portmanteaus.
That works too.
Whatever you want.
In any case, spam.
This is another word that has great negative connotations.
But Spam is canned spiced ham, and it originated back in, I think, probably the 1940s.
Just canned meat is generally not... something people use very often here but spam has stood the test of time and is still on the shelves everywhere and everybody knows what it is in the u.s it's commonly eaten in hawaii because it was difficult to get meats there and livestock especially during the war and um world war ii that is so When I've been to Hawaii, I've had like spam and fried rice.
And I went to an event one time where they had like fried spam and it was delicious.
I'm a fan.
So what does it taste like?
Does it just taste like mushy meat, like mushy hot dogs?
It tastes like a deli ham, like a meat like you'd put on a sandwich.
You just definitely want to cook it.
Because otherwise it's kind of slimy and gross.
But when it's cooked, it's just fatty and salty, delicious.
It's one of the things I think of also with Hawaii is the ham pineapple mixture.
It might have a spam burger, but with a pineapple slice on it.
I know that because of the very high Japanese population there and Japanese tourists that go there, they actually have spam musabi.
Spam musabi would be essentially like a sushi roll with a piece of spam on it.
Have you had that?
Yeah.
You have.
Okay.
Good?
It's good.
I mean, it's rice and ham, a little bit of nori.
So there's no complaints here.
Very nice.
Well, you got two points for that one.
So spam, if you guys are in the US, try some spam.
You'll be pleasantly surprised.
All right.
I'm not sure where that is.
Okay.
Number 13.
Two points.
Okay.
Shauna, your word is appletini.
Appletini.
Okay.
So we're sticking to the food here.
So appletini, I...
I have a feeling people can probably guess the two words that were blended.
Apple, right?
The fruit.
And teeny comes from martini.
So an appletini is an apple martini.
And I am not sure I've actually had one before.
I don't regularly drink martinis, but it sounds like something that in the show Sex and the City they would have ordered.
I know my mom actually orders these.
She actually has martinis.
I think you can probably add any fruit to the beginning.
Crayontini, and I would think, okay, I know that's probably a cranberry martini.
I'm not sure if they exist.
That's just a Cosmo.
It's just a Cosmo?
Okay.
So you're not so familiar with cocktails.
Yeah.
And yeah, an example.
Let's see.
I don't know.
For me, if I drank an apple martini or an appletini, I'm fairly certain I would have a headache the next day.
Yeah, me too.
All right.
Two points.
Okay, two points.
For Liz, the next one is going to be, let's stick to the food, turducken. turducken.
So it's a turkey, duck, and a chicken.
And they're stuffed into each other in accordance to size.
So the turkey is the biggest.
And then I think you shove the duck.
This is when they're dead.
Thank you for pointing that out.
This is not like a human centipede situation.
This is to eat once they're all... Not for fun.
No, this is not for fun.
So you get the turkey from the store, the duck breast, and the chicken breast.
And so inside the turkey cavity, you put the duck and spices and things.
And then the chicken goes inside the duck, which is inside the turkey.
Okay.
So you have three layers of meat being cooked together.
And I think people have this at Thanksgiving.
We are not a fancy enough family to do that.
Would you say it's fancy?
I'd say it's fancy in that it takes a lot of effort.
Okay.
I can imagine.
This is really rude.
I feel like it's a bunch of hillbillies that would eat this.
It's a term, it sounds so I don't know turducken.
I feel like when things are fancy, usually we try and put a French twist on the word or we make it sound a little bit nicer, whereas turducken is what it is, you know.
Yeah, it's three meats shoved into one another.
Yeah.
So, an example, don't have one personally, but I'd be interested in trying it.
You haven't had it before?
No.
I see it says on this website on time.
It says thanks to the culinary genius of Louisiana or Wyoming or South Carolina, each region has staked its claim.
More and more Americans are forsaking butter balls for turduckens.
A butter ball is a brand of turkey for our listeners out there.
Right.
Then you definitely get two.
So your example was that you just wouldn't want to try it.
Or you would try it.
Sorry, you would.
I would try it.
I'm definitely an adventurous eater.
If I'm eating Spam, I will eat Turducken.
As well as many exercises and quizzes on this material.
Hope you enjoyed, and until next time, bye.
Thanks and hope to see you soon.
