I hate words that are merged together

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Joe90
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13 Feb 2022, 2:49 pm

Like staycation and housebarrassment.

It's becoming more popular now to merge words together to form a cringing word that needn't exist.

Anyone else get annoyed?


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FairyFox
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13 Feb 2022, 2:51 pm

Consider yourself lucky you re not German. German language is full of such words.



HighLlama
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13 Feb 2022, 2:52 pm

They're called portmanteaus (just for your own information).

I love them when someone like James Joyce does them. Most of the popular ones are too "cutesy" (like staycation). So disagree that they're all bad, but yeah...so many are annoying.



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13 Feb 2022, 2:55 pm

I don't know many of those....One i recall....edutainment.
Apart from them being aesthetic ugly. Most of the time.
I don't really have a problem, with such bastardizations of English language.
Since language itself is always evolving.


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Joe90
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13 Feb 2022, 2:57 pm

I think I get most annoyed when these words are overused on TV/radio adverts.


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HighLlama
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13 Feb 2022, 2:57 pm

theprisoner wrote:
I don't know many of those....One i recall....edutainment.
Apart from them being aesthetic ugly. Most of the time.
I don't really have a problem, with such bastardizations of English language.
Since language itself is always evolving.


Jazzercise and edutainment...two of my favorites to throw into conversation, to startle people. Infotainment too.



HighLlama
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13 Feb 2022, 2:58 pm

Joe90 wrote:
I think I get most annoyed when these words are overused on TV/radio adverts.


Yes, our false friend media. Or should I say frenemy :)



kitesandtrainsandcats
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13 Feb 2022, 3:02 pm

The topic brings to mind a book I really enjoyed and other than that I have no personal opinion on the thing.

Words on the Move: Why English Won't - and Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally) – September 6, 2016 by John McWhorter

Ya know, the thought just occurred that my having no personal opinion might be influenced by Dad having been in the US Navy where acronyms are the native language.

Some I remember:

DESRON
COMCRUDESFLOT 2
SUBLANT

et cetera et cetera ad infinitum to such an extent that there actually is ...

DICNAVAB
https://www.worldcat.org/title/dictiona ... 1033659820


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kitesandtrainsandcats
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13 Feb 2022, 3:09 pm

Joe90 wrote:
I think I get most annoyed when these words are overused on TV/radio adverts.


Ah, that brings to mind what I'll call a "warped advantage" of the interaction between my set of the effects of autism and ME/CFS, TV is too full of too many sounds and too many lights happening too quickly & most music is likewise too full of too many different sounds happening too quickly that they are overstimulating to the point of causing physical stress symptoms.

Therefore radio and TV ads haven't been part of my life for a couple decades now.

Related effects are why I do not do Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and such.

And the more time goes by the more it looks like my life overall is better off for it.


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13 Feb 2022, 11:31 pm

A city in the Pacific NW had a portmanteau for a name until it was destroyed by a flood in 1948.

The city was named "Vanport", which was a portmanteau of "Vancouver" and "Portland."


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