User:Gobonobo/Malamanteau

A malamanteau is a neologism for a portmanteau created by incorrectly combining a malapropism with a neologism. It is itself a portmanteau of malapropism and portmanteau. Malamanteaux have also been defined as erroneous and unintentional portmanteaux.

A malamanteau may be created when somebody confuses two words, using one in place of the other. Unlike a malapropism or an eggcorn, the fumbled word is not completely replaced, but merely transfixed to the new one in the manner of a portmanteau. A well-known example is “misunderestimate” which was uttered in 2000 by then-US President George W. Bush, who was likely jumbling the words "underestimate" and "misunderstand."

The earliest known use of the term "malamanteau" was made on the Ask MetaFilter forums on July 17, 2007. When trying to classify the linguistic phenomenon, Philadelphia musician Steve Goldberg, identified as user ludwig_van, commented "It's not spoonerism. More like a portmanteau combined with a malapropism. So I'd go with malamanteau or a portmanpropism." The word was popularized by former NASA roboticist Randall Munroe in a May 11, 2010 xkcd comic strip which featured a facsimile of an invented Wikipedia entry for "malamanteau" reading "A malamanteau is a neologism for a portmanteau created by incorrectly combining a malapropism with a neologism. It is itself a portmanteau of..." Munroe created the stunt word to lampoon Wikipedia's writing style and tendency to overuse certain words.

Shortly thereafter, an entry for "malamanteau" was created on the English Wikipedia, mirroring the strip's language. Editors from the encyclopedia disputed whether the word deserved an entry and the article was repeatedly deleted and recreated before being listed for discussion on a Wikipedia noticeboard. The incident was picked up by various media and the 19,000 word debate over whether malamanteau was a word and whether it met Wikipedia's notability guidelines was reported on many blogs. On May 12 the word appeared on the Google Trends top 10 list. Urban Dictionary lists as one of its definitions of malamanteau "A word defined to infuriate Wikipedia editors."

Later that month, lexicographer Erin McKean wrote "One-day wonder", an article about the word, for The Boston Globe. In the article, she lists "insinuendos", "bewilderness", and the Bushism "misunderestimated" as malamanteaux.

Sarah Palin coined a malamanteau that summer with her use of "refudiate", combining the words refute and repudiate. The word was chosen as new word of the year for 2010 by New Oxford American Dictionary, with the statement "From a strictly lexical interpretation of the different contexts in which Palin has used 'refudiate,' we have concluded that neither 'refute' nor 'repudiate' seems consistently precise, and that 'refudiate' more or less stands on its own, suggesting a general sense of 'reject.'"

Malamanteaux have been the topic of discussion on Language Log, a collaborative language blog maintained by phonetician Mark Liberman. Robert Lane Greene, writer for The Economist, criticized Munroe's definition for malamanteau, writing that it was too specific to be useful. He proposed in his blog "Johnson" that malamanteau be defined as "an erroneous and and unintentional portmanteau."