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Defining The Malamanteau Of Malamanteau
Malamanteau is one word that is confounding many linguists. If you're a fan of XKCD the web comic, you saw what one author believes malamanteau means. You’re in luck when you have heard malamanteau around the coffee shop today. No, it doesn't have to do with love, mathematics, loan until payday or sarcasm. Malamanteau is, compared to all other things, simple.
The original definition of Malamanteau explained be the author
XKCD on Wednesday morning integrated a false Wikipedia page for “malamanteau." When this comic was posted, there was no such page, though there is now. The definition XKCD offers for malamanteau is "a neologism for a portmanteau created by incorrectly combining a malapropism with a neologism." Even the smartest of financial industry types were left asking “huh?"
Breaking down the constituent parts of malamanteau
The definition of malamanteau makes a lot more sense whenever you break down the essential parts of the definition. Neologism is a word meaning “a new word”. Portmanteau is a blended word. Any word that blends both the sound and also the meaning of two words is a portmanteau - for instance, "don't" is a portmanteau of "do" and "not." If you substitute one word for another when they sound the exact same, but do not mean the same thing, you are using a malapropism. The word that malapropism comes from just means “inappropriate." Using alligator instead of allegory is a malapropism.
Malamanteau – the meaning as it should be defined
So, what does malamanteau really mean? Mixing a wrong word with a new word creates, then, a malamanteau. Mix “masil” and “obliterate” to create “masillerterate” to describe stock market crash ruining the economy.
In other words, malamanteau is, in itself, a malamanteau - a created word that combines a created word with an incorrect word.
Sources
XKCD
