Malamanteau : Meaning of Malamanteau

Within the last few hours there have been numerous searches going on about a strange new word called malamanteau. Most of the searches are for the meaning of the word because apparently no such word exists in the English language at the moment. While this might be true on some traditional level, there is actually a word from another context that allows such a creation of a word, maybe not in a formal sense, but allows nonetheless.

There is really nothing too difficult or impossible about finding the origin of this word. For all those who are dying to know the meaning; is a very clever creation done by probably a very intelligent person. Actually malamanteau is a combination of two words malapropism and portmanteau. These two are real words that have real meanings and the meanings are easily available on Wikipedia. For those who are so lazy that they can’t go to Wikipedia, I’ll break it down for them.

Malapropism means to use a word in place of another word that makes the same sound, but doesn’t deliver an appropriate meaning, for example, odorous for odious, comprehended for apprehended and auspicious for suspicious and benefactors for malefactors. All these are Malapropos of each other. Now the second word portmanteau means to merge two words with each other in such a way that the sounds of the two words become merged as well as their meanings. In this case malamanteau is a portmanteau of portmanteau and Malapropism, whereas malamanteau is also a Malapropos of portmanteau. The meaning of the new word is still to be created properly.

Malamanteau