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Today in class we talked about Lewis Carroll's poem "The Jabberwocky." This is a classic of English nonsense poetry, where Carroll makes liberal use of portmanteaus.
A portmanteau is a word made up of other words squished together. You've probably seen some of these in your experience.
For example, chocoholic is a smush of alcoholic and chocolate, meaning that a person is addicted to chocolate. Another more pop-culture related one in Brangelina (mush of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie). A telethon is telephone and marathon. Chillax (you'll make fun of me for bringing this one up) is chill and relax. So you see that we use portmanteaus in our language all the time!
For homework, come up with five of your own portmanteaus and write a poem or a short story which uses these invented words! At the top of your page, write down your portmanteaus and define them, explaining which words you smushed together. Have fun with this assignment, and take the opportunity to experiment with words and meaning.
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