Two words, packed into one.

To laugh in a gleeful, slightly breathless way.

Coined by Lewis Carroll

Note Coined in "Jabberwocky" ("O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! / He chortled in his joy"). The only Carroll coinage from that poem that fully entered standard English.

To move in a heavy, clumsy, exultant way.

Coined by Lewis Carroll

Note Also from "Jabberwocky." Less common than "chortle" but listed in the OED; revived by Tolkien readers who encounter it in the same rhythm.

A meal combining breakfast and lunch, usually late-morning on weekends.

Coined by Guy Beringer

Note Coined in "Brunch: A Plea" in *Hunter's Weekly*, where Beringer argued that Sunday brunch would replace post-Church luncheons and "set a sociable and good-tempered tone."

To kill by electric shock.

Coined by unknown (US press)

Note Coined in newspaper coverage of the first planned execution by electric chair (1890). Initially narrowly forensic; later extended to any fatal shock.

Lithe and slimy (Humpty Dumpty's gloss).

Coined by Lewis Carroll

Note The word Carroll uses in *Through the Looking-Glass* to explain the portmanteau concept itself. Never entered standard English but remains the canonical example.

The stage of life when one tells rambling old-person stories.

Coined by John Wilkes (attrib.) / Benjamin Disraeli

Note Disraeli used it in *Lothair* (1870) with the gloss "when a man falls into his anecdotage." The word is in the OED but remains gently archaic.

To redraw electoral boundaries to favour a party.

Coined by Boston Gazette cartoonists

Note When Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry signed a redistricting bill creating a salamander-shaped district, the *Boston Gazette* printed a caricature of the district as a salamander. The hybrid word stuck within weeks.

The two ancient English universities considered together as a single elite institution.

Coined by William Makepeace Thackeray

Note Coined in *The History of Pendennis* as a jocular university name. The rival blend "Camford" appeared in the same book but never stuck — Oxbridge is now standard in British journalism.

Fiercely angry; spluttering with rage.

Coined by Lewis Carroll

Note From "Jabberwocky" ("the frumious Bandersnatch"). Carroll explains the blending method in his preface to *The Hunting of the Snark*, using *frumious* as the example.

A chance occurrence; coincidence.

Coined by unknown

Note First recorded in American English; the implied second element is *circumstance*, but the blend is loose enough that some sources dispute its portmanteau status. The word has outlasted that argument.

An ornamental flourish or curled stroke of the pen.

Coined by unknown

Note A minor survivor of Victorian calligraphy jargon. Still used in typography and paleography; one of the earliest recorded English portmanteaus in the pattern *squiggle* + *twirl*.

A thick, polluting atmospheric haze.

Coined by Dr Henry Des Voeux

Note Coined in a paper read to the Public Health Congress in London, describing the pollution that would later kill thousands in the 1952 Great Smog.

A roadside hotel with parking, designed for motorists.

Coined by Arthur Heineman

Note Coined when Heineman opened the Milestone Mo-Tel in San Luis Obispo, California — explicitly a hotel for motor travellers. He kept the hyphen; the word soon dropped it.

A semiconductor device that amplifies or switches electrical signals.

Coined by John Pierce (Bell Labs)

Note A Bell Labs vote between "transistor," "crystal triode," and three other proposals. Pierce's coinage won. The transistor itself was invented by Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley the year before.

A device that converts digital signals to analogue for transmission and back.

Coined by AT&T engineering

Note Coined internally at AT&T for the Bell 101 dataset, the first commercial modem. By 1965 the word had left the lab and entered general tech vocabulary.

A device that measures blood alcohol from breath.

Coined by Robert Borkenstein

Note Indiana State Police chemist Borkenstein invented the device and trademarked the name; the word generalised once drink-driving laws adopted the test as standard.

A system that uses radio waves to detect distant objects.

Coined by US Navy

Note An acronym-portmanteau hybrid. Coined as a classified term in 1940 and released to the public in 1943. Replaced the earlier British "RDF" (radio direction finding).

A being combining biological and artificial components.

Coined by Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline

Note Coined in a NASA-commissioned paper on modifying human physiology for space travel. Science fiction ran with it before the paper's proposals were seriously tested.

Paid content designed to look like editorial copy.

Coined by collective

Note Coined in the trade magazine *Advertising & Selling*. Reborn in the 2000s as "native advertising" — same practice, freshly unashamed.

A procession of motor vehicles, usually ceremonial.

Coined by Lyle Abbot

Note Coined in the *Arizona Republican* to describe a welcome parade in Phoenix. The pattern (-cade) later gave us "aquacade" (1937) and "motorcade" spread via Roosevelt-era press.

A self-styled authority on sex — journalist, author, advice columnist.

Coined by collective

Note First appears in US tabloid copy about Freud's translators. The word has cycled back into fashion with every new sex-advice columnist — from Dr. Ruth to Dan Savage.

A film, book, or illustrated lecture about a journey.

Coined by Burton Holmes

Note Holmes, an American photographer and lecturer, coined the word to describe his illustrated travel presentations. The form is *travel* spliced with the end of *monologue*, preserving both.

A hybrid citrus fruit crossing a tangerine and a pomelo.

Coined by Walter T. Swingle

Note Coined by Swingle, a USDA plant biologist, for the hybrid he bred at the agency's Eustis, Florida, station. A rare case of a breeder naming a new fruit with a portmanteau rather than a personal name.

A thin transparent sheet of regenerated cellulose.

Coined by Jacques Brandenberger

Note Brandenberger, a Swiss chemist, coined the name from *cellulose* plus French *diaphane* (transparent). Trademarked as Cellophane; the word fell into generic use in most countries.

A brand of heat-resistant borosilicate glass cookware.

Coined by Corning Glass Works

Note The leading theory of the name blends *pie* (the first product was a pie dish) with *Nonex* (an earlier Corning glass). Corning insisted the *py-* was for the pie dish, not for "pyre" or Greek *pyr* (fire), as is often assumed.

The complete set of genetic material in an organism.

Coined by Hans Winkler

Note The German botanist Winkler coined *Genom* (German) in his 1920 monograph *Verbreitung und Ursache der Parthenogenesis*. The English form *genome* followed immediately; the concept predates DNA discovery by three decades.

A flavoured ice lolly on a stick.

Coined by Frank Epperson

Note Epperson accidentally invented the frozen treat as an 11-year-old in 1905 but patented and named it in 1923. Original name: *Epsicle* (Epperson + icicle); his children preferred *pop's sicle*, which won.

A presenter of news on radio or television.

Coined by Alwyn Bach

Note Bach, an NBC announcer, is credited with the term on-air; it spread fast through broadcasting trade press. Built on the older *broadcaster* (1922), itself built on agricultural *broadcast* (1767) — seed-sowing terminology reused for radio.

The hybrid offspring of a male tiger and a female lion.

Coined by Karl Hagenbeck

Note The German zookeeper Hagenbeck bred the first documented tigons at his Stellingen zoo. The reverse cross (male lion, female tiger) is a *liger* and is larger, for reasons of imprinted growth-regulation genes.

A non-alcoholic drink prepared in cocktail style.

Coined by unknown

Note First appears in American press in 1936 as a Prohibition-era legacy word — Prohibition ended 1933, but the teetotal cocktail tradition it created needed a name. Revived commercially in the 2010s with the sober-curious movement.

Code-switching or hybrid varieties of Spanish and English.

Coined by Salvador Tió

Note Tió, a Puerto Rican journalist, coined *Espanglish* in a 1933 newspaper column as a lament about English loanwords invading Puerto Rican Spanish. The English form flipped the order and dropped the *E-*.

Background music in shops and lifts; bland instrumental filler music.

Coined by George Owen Squier

Note Squier, a US Army general and radio pioneer, blended *music* with *Kodak* because he admired the brand name. Muzak became both a company and a genre; the lower-case generic usage ("piped-in muzak") is a 1960s development.

A hamburger topped with melted cheese.

Coined by disputed

Note Multiple US diners claim to have coined it around 1935 — Kaelin's in Louisville, Denver's Humpty Dumpty Drive-In, Pasadena's Rite Spot. Louis Ballast of the Humpty Dumpty trademarked the name in 1935; the product itself may be older.

A transparent acrylic plastic used as a glass substitute.

Coined by Röhm & Haas

Note Trademarked by the German chemical company Röhm & Haas. *Plexi-* is from Greek *plexus* (network), referring to the polymer's long molecular chains. English usually spells it *Plexiglas* with one *s*; many speakers double it by analogy with *glass*.

Soldiers who deploy by parachute.

Coined by US War Department

Note First recorded in US military press releases announcing the 1940 formation of airborne test platoons. Adjective *paratroop* came before noun *paratrooper*; both are standard now.

A brand of hook-and-loop fabric fastener.

Coined by George de Mestral

Note The Swiss engineer de Mestral got the idea from burdock burrs stuck to his dog's fur. He coined the name from French *velours* (velvet) and *crochet* (hook). Patented in 1955, the word is now generic in most countries.

The offspring of a male lion and a female tiger.

Coined by unknown (zoological usage)

Note The reciprocal cross (male tiger × female lion) is a *tigon* — an older coinage dating to the 1920s. Both are documented in zoo records decades before pop-culture usage.

A highly magnetised, rapidly rotating neutron star that emits regular pulses of radiation.

Coined by The Daily Telegraph

Note Coined by the *Telegraph*'s science correspondent Anthony Michaelis, at a time when radio-astronomy discoveries were being announced faster than astronomers could name them. "Quasar" (quasi-stellar) had set the -ar template a year earlier.

A TV comedy built around a fixed cast in a recurring setting.

Coined by US broadcast industry

Note Early TV critics used "situation comedy" through the 1950s; "sitcom" is a 1960s industry contraction that displaced it by the 1970s.

A preacher whose ministry is conducted primarily on television.

Coined by US journalism

Note The word predates the 1980s boom in televised ministries by a generation — it described Oral Roberts's 1950s broadcasts before the genre had a clearer genre name.

An extremely luminous active galactic nucleus.

Coined by Hong-Yee Chiu

Note Coined by astrophysicist Chiu in *Physics Today* as a shorter form of "quasi-stellar radio source." The -ar suffix later productive for "pulsar" and "magnetar."

An incendiary gel used in military firebombs.

Coined by Louis Fieser (Harvard)

Note Named after the two acids used in the original gelling agent. Developed at Harvard under US military contract and deployed extensively in WWII and Vietnam.

A small motorcycle with auxiliary pedals.

Coined by Swedish journalist Harald Nielsen

Note Swedish *moped* (from *motor* + *pedaler*) was coined in a newspaper article on low-powered motorbikes. The word travelled across Europe with the vehicle.

Referring to artificial body parts that replace or enhance natural ones.

Coined by Jack Steele (USAF)

Note Coined at a USAF symposium on applying biological principles to engineering. The 1970s TV series *The Six Million Dollar Man* made it pop-cultural.

The fundamental unit of digital information — a 0 or a 1.

Coined by John W. Tukey

Note The statistician Tukey proposed "bit" in a memo at Bell Labs; Claude Shannon adopted it in his 1948 information theory paper. The portmanteau won out over rivals "binit" and "bigit."

The smallest addressable unit of a digital image.

Coined by Frederic C. Billingsley

Note Coined at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for images from the Mariner 4 Mars flyby. Earlier "pel" (same idea, uglier shape) appeared in the 1940s but never caught on.

An extended TV broadcast, usually raising money for charity.

Coined by collective

Note Coined for Milton Berle's 14-hour 1949 fundraiser for the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund. Jerry Lewis's Labor Day telethon (1966–2010) made the form iconic.

A film dramatising the life of a real person.

Coined by Variety magazine

Note Variety coined dozens of such clippings — "sitcom" and "whodunit" too — as industry shorthand that jumped into mainstream English within a decade.

An amateur-published magazine written by and for fans of a subject.

Coined by Russ Chauvenet

Note Coined in *Detours* #8 by sci-fi fan Russ Chauvenet to distinguish amateur zines from professional "prozines." The pattern later gave us "grrrlzine" and "ezine."

A designer dog crossbreed combining cocker spaniel and poodle.

Coined by collective

Note The first documented designer-dog portmanteau, predating the labradoodle by nearly three decades. US breeders' clubs formalised the cross in 1999.

Extremely wonderful — an emphatic superlative.

Coined by collective

Note Popularised by mid-century advertising copy. Later adopted as the title of a 1968 British game show and a recurring Austin Powers catchphrase.

A device that both transmits and receives radio signals.

Coined by unknown (amateur radio)

Note First recorded in US amateur radio magazines. A genuinely useful coinage: before transceivers, a ham radio operator needed two separate boxes. The word reflects the engineering consolidation.

Looking or performing well on television.

Coined by unknown

Note Coined by US television industry writers as the medium approached commercial debut. The 1960 Kennedy–Nixon debate made the word politically consequential — Kennedy was seen as the more telegenic candidate.

The white vapour trail left by a high-flying aircraft.

Coined by US Army Air Forces

Note Military usage abbreviated *condensation trail* to *contrail* for brevity in bomber-formation reports. The word became essential for WWII bomber crews: contrails gave away their position to enemy fighters from miles off.

A word formed from the initial letters of a phrase.

Coined by Bell Laboratories technical writers

Note From Greek *akron* (tip) + *onoma* (name). The word is itself a portmanteau coined to name a new class of 20th-century coinages — WWII produced so many letter-strings (radar, sonar, scuba) that a general term was needed.

A programme broadcast simultaneously on multiple channels or media.

Coined by unknown

Note First recorded in US radio-and-television trade press. Originally described the early practice of sending identical audio on AM radio and the new FM band at once; later stretched to any multi-channel simultaneous transmission.

A moving walkway, typically horizontal, at an airport or station.

Coined by Otis Elevator Company

Note Trademarked by Otis as *Trav-O-Lator* in 1955 after earlier 1950s experimental installations. The name slipped into generic British English; in American English *moving walkway* is more common.

A motor fuel blend of petrol and ethanol.

Coined by US Nebraska agricultural chemists

Note Promoted by Nebraska farmers in the 1970s oil shocks as a use for surplus corn. The word existed earlier but mass usage is post-1973. Modern *E10* and *E85* fuels are gasohol by another name.

A character of a Jim Henson-style foam-and-rod puppet; informally, a fool.

Coined by Jim Henson

Note Henson said in later interviews that the blend was a joke he made up long after the fact — the word had come to him in one piece. Either way, *marionette* + *puppet* is the generally accepted analysis. The British slang sense ("what a muppet") is 1980s.

An early rock-and-roll genre combining country and R&B elements.

Coined by unknown (US music press)

Note First appears in Billboard in 1956 to describe the Memphis Sun Records sound (Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis). A neat portmanteau: the music itself blended country (*hillbilly*) with *rock*, and the name documents the blending.

The political tactic of pushing a crisis to the edge of disaster.

Coined by Adlai Stevenson

Note Stevenson coined the word in a speech attacking Eisenhower's secretary of state John Foster Dulles, who had praised walking to the brink of war. The Cold War gave the word permanent relevance.

The railway tunnel between England and France under the English Channel.

Coined by unknown (British press)

Note Coined in British newspapers during the first serious Channel-tunnel planning. The tunnel itself only opened in 1994; the word waited 37 years for its referent. Officially just "the Channel Tunnel" in both countries.

Rule by people selected for ability; a system rewarding talent over birth.

Coined by Michael Young

Note Young's *The Rise of the Meritocracy* coined the word as a dystopian warning. He meant it pejoratively; it has since been reclaimed as a positive, to Young's exasperation (he wrote a 2001 *Guardian* column protesting the reversal).

A hotel on water, or moored boats rented as rooms.

Coined by unknown

Note A faddish 1950s tourism coinage on the model of *motel* (1925). Most historical boatels were converted barges on European canals; the word survives mainly on Amsterdam and Paris signage.

French heavily mixed with English loanwords.

Coined by Max Rat (Étienne Gilson?)

Note Popularised by René Étiemble's 1964 book *Parlez-vous franglais?* — a cultural complaint about Anglicisation. Unlike *Spanglish*, the term is usually pejorative and culturally freighted with the Académie française's purist mission.

To seize control of an aircraft in flight.

Coined by unknown (US press)

Note Coined in US newspapers during the early wave of Cold War-era hijackings to Cuba. The form mirrors *carjack*, which came thirty years later; *hijack* itself is Prohibition-era American slang.

An official of the European Union institutions.

Coined by unknown

Note First recorded in British press coverage of the early European Economic Community. Often mildly pejorative, implying faceless Brussels administration; the word predates the EU itself by three decades.

A robotic puppet made to appear alive; relating to such puppetry.

Coined by Walt Disney Imagineering

Note Disney coined the word for the 1964 World's Fair Lincoln figure and Tiki Room birds. Originally the company called it *Audio-Animatronics* (a further blend); engineering press shortened it.

The US federal health insurance programme for people over 65.

Coined by US Congress

Note The programme name came from the 1965 Social Security Amendments. Australia and Canada later used the same name for their universal systems, borrowing the American coinage without the American meaning.

Persistent high inflation combined with stagnant economic output.

Coined by Iain Macleod

Note Macleod, a British Conservative MP, used it in the House of Commons to describe the UK's growing 1960s economic trouble. Keynesian economics had said this combination should not occur; the word described what should not exist.

A region of unusually high gravitational pull, especially on the Moon.

Coined by Paul M. Muller & William L. Sjogren

Note Coined by NASA JPL scientists after Lunar Orbiter data showed unexpected gravity anomalies beneath lunar maria. Mascons affected Apollo-mission trajectories and had to be mapped for lunar landings.

A person with a strong craving for chocolate.

Coined by unknown

Note The template -*aholic* (from *workaholic*, same year) became productive fast — *shopaholic*, *sexaholic*, *carboholic* followed. The clinical framing of ordinary preferences as addiction is the cultural marker of the era.

A welfare system in which benefits are conditional on working.

Coined by James Charles Evers

Note Evers, a US civil rights activist and mayor of Fayette, Mississippi, used the word in 1968 speeches. Richard Nixon popularised it in 1969; Bill Clinton's 1996 welfare reform made it federal US policy.

Dance fitness classes combining jazz dance with aerobic exercise.

Coined by Judi Sheppard Missett

Note Missett, a Chicago dance instructor, built the brand from a single class she taught in 1969 into a worldwide franchise. The word survives the dated 1980s leg-warmer aesthetic; the company is still operating.

The US national passenger rail service.

Coined by Congressional naming committee

Note Created in 1971 when the federal government took over failing private passenger rail. The brand name was chosen from proposals including *Railpax*; the *-trak* spelling with *k* is stylised marketing, not a genuine reduction of *track*.

African-American Vernacular English considered as a distinct linguistic system.

Coined by Robert Williams

Note Williams, an African-American psychologist, coined the term at a St Louis conference on Black language. The 1996 Oakland School Board resolution to teach *Ebonics* as a second language set off a national US debate.

A conservative favouring assertive US foreign policy and democratic interventionism.

Coined by Michael Harrington

Note Harrington, a democratic-socialist intellectual, used *neo-conservative* pejoratively in *Dissent* magazine to describe former liberals who had moved right. The faction adopted the label; the *neocon* clipping is 1980s journalistic shorthand.

The first US space station, operational 1973–1979.

Coined by NASA

Note NASA held a naming competition for the project and selected the entry submitted by Don Steelman, a US Air Force officer. Skylab re-entered uncontrolled in 1979 and scattered debris across Western Australia; the shire of Esperance fined NASA US$400 for littering.

The American software company founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

Coined by Paul Allen

Note Allen proposed the name (originally *Micro-Soft* with hyphen) in a 1975 letter to Gates. The hyphen was dropped by 1976. A portmanteau that became a company, rather than a company that inherited one.

The Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay).

Coined by Bevinda Collaco

Note Collaco, a Bombay film journalist, is credited in Indian trade press with popularising the word. Many Indian critics object to the term as suggesting derivative status; filmmakers like Amitabh Bachchan have publicly criticised it.

A holiday spent at home or nearby rather than travelling abroad.

Coined by Canadian press

Note An earlier use appears in *The Cincinnati Enquirer* in 1944, but the word didn't take hold until the post-2008 recession made budget-conscious holidays a news topic.

A rough estimate that admits it's closer to a guess.

Coined by American statisticians

Note A self-deprecating professional coinage — a way to signal "this number is indicative, not precise." Entered general business English by the 1970s.

A long-form TV advertisement styled as editorial content.

Coined by US advertising industry

Note Accompanied the 1984 deregulation of US cable TV, which lifted the cap on ad length. "Advertorial" (advertisement + editorial) covers the print equivalent.

A text-based facial expression, e.g. :-) or :-(

Coined by Scott Fahlman (CMU)

Note Fahlman proposed :-) and :-( on a Carnegie Mellon bulletin board to distinguish jokes from serious posts. The word "emoticon" caught up in the early 1990s; "emoji" (Japanese, unrelated etymology) later displaced it.

A person compulsively addicted to work.

Coined by Wayne Oates

Note Coined by Oates, a Baptist minister and pastoral counsellor, in a magazine article framed as a confession. Spawned a family of "-aholic" suffixes (shopaholic, chocoholic) — though the original joke required the base to be a substance.

A 1970s film genre aimed at urban Black audiences.

Coined by Junius Griffin (NAACP)

Note Griffin coined the term as critique, not endorsement — arguing that the genre exploited Black audiences with stereotyped narratives. Later reclaimed by some filmmakers as a positive genre label.

A portable video recording device.

Coined by Sony marketing

Note Sony combined camera and videotape recorder into one unit and coined a name for the product category. Commoditised by 1990; nearly extinct as a standalone device by 2015.

Content that combines instructional and entertainment goals.

Coined by Disney (internal)

Note Disney used it in internal memos about educational documentaries. General use exploded with 1990s CD-ROM software and *The Oregon Trail*-style school computing.

A utensil combining a spoon's bowl with fork tines.

Coined by unknown (US patent)

Note The first US patent for a spoon-fork dates to 1874; the name "spork" is trademarked separately multiple times between 1909 and 1970. No single coiner owns it.

The norms of polite online behaviour.

Coined by Usenet users

Note Emerged in early Usenet FAQs as long-timers tried to socialise new users. The RFC 1855 "Netiquette Guidelines" (1995) codified the term for policy writing.

A dramatised reconstruction of a true story, styled to feel documentary.

Coined by collective

Note Entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1980. Distinct from "mockumentary" (which is fiction pretending to be documentary) — docudrama is the opposite direction.

A work blending dramatic and comedic tones roughly equally.

Coined by collective

Note Emerged in TV Guide writing about *M*A*S*H* and *Lou Grant*. Academics later coined "seriocomedy" to sound more respectable; "dramedy" won on rhythm alone.

A documentary about rock music, a band, or a tour.

Coined by collective

Note Emerged alongside *Monterey Pop* and *Gimme Shelter*. Rob Reiner's *This Is Spinal Tap* (1984) popularised the word self-consciously as a mockumentary about rockumentaries.

A film or TV show whose plot centres on a humorous romance.

Coined by collective

Note First appears in Variety trade clippings. By the 1990s it had become genre shorthand for the Meg Ryan / Nora Ephron canon, then cooled slightly into Netflix category.

Dressing as a character from fiction, especially at conventions.

Coined by Nobuyuki Takahashi

Note Coined in Japanese (コスプレ, kosupure) by game designer Takahashi after he attended Worldcon in Los Angeles. The word reentered English via anime fandom in the 1990s.

A garment with the look of a skirt and the underlying structure of shorts.

Coined by collective

Note First documented in a Butterick sewing-pattern catalogue. The garment itself is older; the name made it a marketable category and survived tennis-wear fashion cycles.

People who follow the crowd uncritically — derogatory.

Coined by Ernest Haycox

Note First used in Haycox's Western novel *Bugles in the Afternoon*. Popularised in the 1980s by radio host Bill Cooper; entered Merriam-Webster in 2017.

An attractive but unintelligent man.

Coined by collective

Note Coined in *People* magazine coverage of Ken dolls and male models. Reclaimed affectionately by 2020s internet culture as a wholesome, kind-hearted archetype.

An engaged, opinionated participant in online discourse.

Coined by Michael Hauben

Note Hauben coined it on Usenet in 1984 to describe users who shaped online culture. Later embraced by Chinese internet media; now mildly dated in English.

A deboned chicken inside a deboned duck inside a deboned turkey — a triple-nested roast.

Coined by Paul Prudhomme

Note Cajun chef Prudhomme claims credit at his New Orleans restaurant. John Madden turned it into American football folklore by dissecting one on-air each Thanksgiving.

A humanoid female robot, especially in fiction.

Coined by *The Bionic Woman* writers

Note First used on the TV series *The Bionic Woman* (season 2, 1976–77; the word hit print in 1978). Later revived by *Austin Powers* (1997). Feminist critics have used *fembot* as a critique of gendered representation in AI; the sci-fi sense predates the scholarly one.

The sickness of wealth: restlessness, dissatisfaction, and debt among the well-off.

Coined by Fred Whybrow (disputed)

Note First appears in US social-critique writing. Famously used as a legal defence in the 2013 trial of Ethan Couch in Texas, which made the word internationally notorious overnight.

A young, affluent, status-conscious urban professional of the 1980s.

Coined by Joseph Epstein (disputed)

Note First recorded in American press c. 1980, but the word truly broke out with Newsweek's 1984 "Year of the Yuppie" cover. Strictly an acronym rather than pure portmanteau, but the word is treated as a blend in most lexicography.

A pejorative for wealthy, idle young Europeans socialising abroad.

Coined by unknown (US gossip press)

Note Peaked in 1980s New York club culture, reclaimed in the 1990s by a British Channel 4 comedy chat show (*Eurotrash*, 1993–2007). Illustrates how a pejorative can be inverted into self-branding within a generation.

News or educational content produced and packaged as entertainment.

Coined by unknown

Note US television industry usage. Initially neutral — describing daytime-TV news magazines — it became largely pejorative by the 1990s as cable news adopted more entertainment devices.

Selling goods or services by phone call.

Coined by Nadji Tehrani

Note Tehrani founded *Telemarketing* magazine in 1982, popularising the word that had been circulating in US direct-sales circles since 1980. Regulation since the 1990s (US Do-Not-Call Registry, 2003) has squeezed the practice but not the word.

An in-line skate with wheels arranged in a single line.

Coined by Scott and Brennan Olson

Note The Olson brothers, Minnesota hockey players, founded Rollerblade Inc. in 1980 to sell modified ice-hockey off-ice trainers. The brand name generalised so fast that the company had to run ad campaigns insisting the proper generic term is *in-line skate*.

The conceptual space of computer networks and digital interaction.

Coined by William Gibson

Note Gibson coined it in the short story "Burning Chrome" (Omni, July 1982), two years before *Neuromancer* (1984) made it canonical. Gibson said in interviews he liked the sound of the word first and back-formed the definition; it has since become infrastructure.

Software distributed at no cost, though usually not open-source.

Coined by Andrew Fluegelman

Note Fluegelman trademarked *Freeware* for his PC-Talk program, but his family released the trademark after his death in 1985. The word entered general use; the distinction from *free software* (GNU sense, 1985) came later and is strongly defended by Richard Stallman.

Software distributed freely with a request for payment if the user keeps it.

Coined by Bob Wallace / Jim Knopf

Note Wallace used *shareware* for his PC-Write word processor; Knopf used *user-supported software*. Wallace's term won. Shareware dominated 1980s–90s PC software distribution via magazine cover-disks and BBSes.

An imitation leather made from plastic.

Coined by unknown

Note American garment-industry shorthand, popularised by the 1990s grunge and goth subcultures. Cheaper than leather and free of animal-product concerns; modern versions are increasingly made from polyurethane rather than PVC.

A competitor in maths contests; informally, a maths whiz.

Coined by MATHCOUNTS Foundation

Note The MATHCOUNTS competition for US middle-school students launched in 1983 and used *mathlete* as a branding term. The 2004 film *Mean Girls* mainstreamed the word to general audiences.

A science-fiction subgenre of high-tech, low-life near-future dystopias.

Coined by Bruce Bethke

Note Bethke used the word as the title of a short story in *Amazing Stories* (Nov 1983) — a year before William Gibson's *Neuromancer* defined the genre it named. The word now covers a whole aesthetic spanning literature, film (*Blade Runner*), and videogames (*Cyberpunk 2077*).

A person who compulsively shops.

Coined by unknown

Note First recorded in US consumer-advice press. Sophie Kinsella's *Confessions of a Shopaholic* (2000) and its 2009 film adaptation pushed the word into global pop vocabulary.

A punk-influenced LGBTQ cultural and musical movement.

Coined by Bruce LaBruce & G.B. Jones

Note Coined in the Toronto-based zine *J.D.s*, which LaBruce and Jones founded. The movement predates widespread LGBTQ acceptance in punk; the word self-consciously claimed *queer* before the broader academic reclamation of the 1990s.

An affected Cockney accent used by someone not from working-class London.

Coined by unknown (British press)

Note Aimed at middle-class British public figures adopting a cod-Cockney accent for cultural credibility. Often applied to 1990s Britpop musicians and TV chefs; the word names a specific class tension in British culture.

A food or food supplement claimed to have medicinal benefits.

Coined by Stephen DeFelice

Note DeFelice, chairman of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine, coined the word to describe a proposed regulatory category between food and drugs. The category never got formal US recognition; the word stuck regardless.

Stealing a car by force from its driver.

Coined by unknown

Note Coined in US news reporting during a sharp early-1990s rise in violent car theft. The 1992 US Anti Car Theft Act made carjacking a federal crime, and the word entered legal vocabulary almost immediately after mass use.

A vegetarian who also eats fish and seafood.

Coined by unknown

Note From Italian *pesce* (fish) spliced into *vegetarian*. A logical gap in diet vocabulary — no common word had named fish-eating vegetarians before the 1990s. Sometimes spelled *pescetarian* with the Italian-faithful *e*.

A camera streaming video over the internet.

Coined by Quentin Stafford-Fraser (concept)

Note The Trojan Room coffee pot camera at Cambridge (1991) was arguably the first webcam; the *word* stabilised around 1994 with public internet growth. Compound rather than pure portmanteau, but listed here for the coinage era.

A pub focused on high-quality food rather than just drink.

Coined by David Eyre & Mike Belben

Note Eyre and Belben opened The Eagle in Farringdon, London, in 1991 and pioneered the kitchen-in-a-pub model. The word followed the practice; by the early 2000s it was a category label in UK restaurant reviewing.

Sexual activity conducted via computer-mediated communication.

Coined by unknown

Note Originated in Usenet and AOL chatroom usage. The prefix *cyber-* (from *cybernetics*) was productive through the 1990s before becoming a dated marker for that decade's internet discourse.

The physical, non-digital world, as opposed to online life.

Coined by John Perry Barlow (popularised)

Note Used on early internet bulletin boards as an ironic counter-term to *cyberspace*; the deliberately crude *meat* keeps the word irreverent. Usage declined after 2010 as the online/offline distinction blurred.

The high-speed data networks of the early internet era; an information superhighway.

Coined by unknown

Note A short-lived synonym for *information superhighway*, popular in 1994–96 US tech press. *Autobahn* provides the metaphor; the word is now a period piece.

A café offering paid internet access to patrons.

Coined by Eva Pascoe

Note Pascoe co-founded Cyberia in London in 1994, the first commercial cybercafe. The concept peaked around 2000 and then collapsed as home broadband spread; the word survives largely as a historical marker.

A bass-heavy Southern US hip-hop subgenre; informally, wild or excited.

Coined by Lil Jon (popularised)

Note Circulating in Atlanta hip-hop from the early 1990s; Lil Jon's 2000s crossover mainstreamed it. Some sources dispute the *crazy + drunk* analysis, suggesting *crunk* is a past participle of *crank* (to crank up).

Software that secretly monitors a user and reports information to a third party.

Coined by unknown

Note On the *-ware* template (freeware, shareware, malware). Entered mainstream computing vocabulary with the 2000s surge in toolbar-style PC malware; the word predates mobile-app surveillance by more than a decade.

A magazine published on the web rather than in print.

Coined by unknown

Note One of several mid-1990s coinages (*e-zine*, *online magazine*, *webzine*) competing for the same idea. By the 2010s, most webzines had just rebranded as *sites* or *publications*; the term marks a specific internet moment.

A digital still or video camera.

Coined by unknown

Note US consumer-electronics press usage, initially for hobbyist digital SLRs. Smartphones have largely displaced digicams since 2010; the word now carries a Y2K-era nostalgia for point-and-shoot photography.

A private network within an organisation using internet technologies.

Coined by Steven Telleen

Note Telleen, a Digital Equipment Corporation manager, popularised the word in a 1996 white paper. The *intra-* prefix (from Latin, meaning *within*) contrasts with *inter-* (between) in *internet*.

An adult retaining the interests and lifestyle of adolescence.

Coined by unknown

Note UK and US lifestyle press usage. The phenomenon it names — extended youth culture in 20s and 30s — became a defining 2000s social theme; the word captured it early but never fully dislodged competitors like *kidult*.

Branded content in which advertising and entertainment are merged.

Coined by unknown (US marketing press)

Note Gained traction through the 2001 BMW *The Hire* short-film series. Related to *infotainment* (1980) but with a commercial rather than news framing; the term predates *sponsored content* as a mainstream label.

Compulsive checking of email, news, and notifications.

Coined by Elizabeth M. Ferrarini

Note Ferrarini's 1984 book *Confessions of an Infomaniac* coined the word. It predates smartphones by a generation; the underlying pattern — checking email compulsively on a modem-connected PC — was already diagnosed in the mid-1980s.

A mostly vegetarian eater who occasionally eats meat or fish.

Coined by Linda Anthony

Note Anthony, an Austin restaurant owner, is credited with the word in the Austin American-Statesman (1998). It was the American Dialect Society's "most useful word" of 2003 — a reliable sign a coinage has stuck.

An adventurous eater willing to try unusual foods.

Coined by unknown (popularised by Stefan Gates)

Note British food writer Stefan Gates made the word the brand of his *Gastronauts* TV series. The parallel with *astronaut* (a voyager through space) casts unusual cuisine as uncharted territory.

A pejorative for genetically modified food.

Coined by Paul Lewis

Note Lewis, a Boston College English professor, used the word in a letter to the *New York Times* opposing the FDA's 1992 decision not to label GM foods. The word spread so fast it shaped the transatlantic regulatory divergence that followed.

Leggings styled to resemble skinny jeans.

Coined by fashion press

Note Entered the OED in 2011 — an unusually fast ascent from coinage to canon, driven by the fashion industry's need to name a category fast.

The UK's withdrawal from the European Union.

Coined by Peter Wilding

Note Coined in a blog post for the think tank British Influence, four years before the referendum. Pronounced "Grexit" (Greece + exit, 2012) set the template.

A digital audio series distributed as downloadable files.

Coined by Ben Hammersley

Note Coined in a *Guardian* article surveying the new wave of downloadable radio. The iPod reference is now obsolete, but the word has outlived the device.

Irritable because one is hungry.

Coined by collective

Note First attested in US print in 1992; remained fringe until social media pushed it into general circulation in the early 2010s. Entered the OED in 2018.

A live educational presentation delivered over the internet.

Coined by unknown (trade press)

Note Coined in the late 1990s B2B marketing press. Accelerated into universal use during 2020's remote-work shift, then drew fatigue in equal measure.

When a man explains something condescendingly, often to a woman who knows more about it.

Coined by collective (post-Solnit essay)

Note Rebecca Solnit's 2008 essay *Men Explain Things to Me* described the phenomenon; the portmanteau crystallised in LiveJournal feminist communities within months. Added to OED in 2018.

Luxury camping with amenities.

Coined by UK travel industry

Note First attested in UK travel press in 2005; appeared in the OED in 2016. The commercial category existed before the word — the Bedouin-style tents at African safari camps were the template.

A close but non-sexual friendship between men.

Coined by Dave Carnie

Note Coined in skate magazine *Big Brother* to describe the friendships skaters formed on the road. Absorbed into mainstream entertainment journalism within five years.

A person who is ostensibly a friend but also a rival.

Coined by Jessica Mitford

Note Mitford used it in *The American Way of Life* as a Cold War joke — describing ambiguously allied nations. The interpersonal sense took off with *Sex and the City* (late 1990s).

A fictional film or show styled as a documentary.

Coined by Rob Reiner

Note Reiner used it in interviews about *This Is Spinal Tap*. The form existed earlier (Orson Welles, Woody Allen) but lacked a crisp label.

Software designed to harm or exploit computers.

Coined by Yisrael Radai

Note Coined by Israeli computer scientist Radai in 1990; by 2000 it had displaced earlier terms like "rogue software" in the security industry.

A smartphone with a screen large enough to blur into tablet territory.

Coined by tech press

Note Peaked as a category name around the Samsung Galaxy Note (2011–2015); faded as every flagship phone reached phablet size and the distinction became meaningless.

Extremely large.

Coined by RAF slang

Note First attested in a *New Statesman* glossary of RAF slang. Stayed colloquial until the 2000s, when it appeared in children's books and general US usage. Added to Merriam-Webster in 2007.

A pastry that is laminated like a croissant and fried like a doughnut.

Coined by Dominique Ansel

Note Ansel trademarked both the pastry and the name at his SoHo bakery. The food generated two-hour queues in 2013, launched a wave of "hybrid pastries," and is still one of the most-cited pastry portmanteaus.

Ending a relationship by suddenly cutting all communication.

Coined by online dating users

Note Technically a derived verb, not a strict portmanteau — but its coinage followed the same folk-pattern. Entered Collins Dictionary in 2015.

To relax; to unwind.

Coined by US teen slang

Note First widely recorded in 1994 California teen speech. Entered the OED in 2010 as a "North American slang" entry; has since drifted into general casual use.

A hairstyle mimicking a mohawk without shaving the sides.

Coined by fashion/hair industry

Note Coined during the David Beckham haircut wave of the mid-2000s. A rare portmanteau that combines a French loan word ("faux") with an Indigenous ethnonym.

Someone who uses hacking as a form of political protest or activism.

Coined by Cult of the Dead Cow (hacker collective)

Note Attributed to a 1994 posting by a cDc member; mainstream usage followed the 2000s rise of groups like Anonymous. Added to the OED in 2014.

A labrador–poodle crossbreed, bred for the poodle's low-shedding coat.

Coined by Wally Conron, Royal Guide Dog breeder

Note Bred intentionally in 1989 for a vision-impaired client whose husband was allergic to dogs. Conron later said he regretted it — the crossbreed sparked a designer-dog boom that outran the animals' welfare.

A personal website of dated entries, published in reverse-chronological order.

Coined by Peter Merholz

Note Jorn Barger coined "weblog" in 1997. Merholz split it as "we blog" in a sidebar joke on his site; the shortened form stuck within months and reshaped the internet.

A blog in video form — typically a personality-led YouTube channel.

Coined by Adrian Miles

Note Miles coined the word in an academic paper, but YouTubers made it a career category. Vlogmas (vlog + Christmas) and vlogspert (vlog + expert) branched off from it.

A URL designed to stay pointing to the same resource indefinitely.

Coined by Paul Bausch

Note Bausch and the Movable Type team coined it as a solution to blog archive rot. The idea predates the word — Tim Berners-Lee called them "cool URIs" — but permalink named it.

A straight urban man who invests in grooming, fashion, and aesthetics.

Coined by Mark Simpson

Note Journalist Mark Simpson coined it in *The Independent* to describe a new archetype then emerging. David Beckham became the poster child by 2002, and the word went global.

The practice of men sitting with legs wide apart, occupying adjacent seats.

Coined by collective

Note Coined on Tumblr in 2013–14 during New York subway-etiquette debates. Added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2015 — one of the fastest portmanteau admissions on record.

A bun hairstyle worn by a man — typically gathered above or behind the head.

Coined by collective

Note Trend-piece journalism coined it around 2012 in profiles of Brooklyn barbers. By 2015 the man-bun had its own Instagram accounts, backlash pieces, and corporate-ban memos.

A crossbreed between golden retriever and poodle.

Coined by collective

Note Emerged in US breeder catalogues around 1992, though labradoodle (1988) is four years older. The suffix -doodle is now productive — shepadoodle, pyradoodle, sheepadoodle all exist.

The collective online space of Twitter users, posts, and conversation.

Coined by collective

Note Built on the older "blogosphere" template. Usage peaked 2015–2019, declined after the 2022 Twitter ownership change; a frozen artefact of a specific platform era.

A member of the well-off, culturally progressive creative class.

Coined by David Brooks

Note Brooks's book *Bobos in Paradise* (2000) coined and popularised the term for US knowledge-economy professionals blending traditional bourgeois affluence with counterculture sensibilities. The word crossed easily into French press, where *bobo* is now entrenched.

A short episodic video released directly to the internet.

Coined by unknown

Note US television trade press usage, initially for online-only spin-offs of TV shows. The form is now standard; YouTube and Netflix have made the web-vs-TV distinction the word encodes obsolete.

A self-portrait photograph, typically taken on a smartphone.

Coined by Nathan Hope

Note First recorded use on an Australian Internet forum (ABC Online) by a 21-year-old whose post became the OED's earliest citation. Oxford's 2013 Word of the Year; the suffix alone (as in *groupie*, *foodie*) pre-existed by decades.

The celebrity couple-name of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.

Coined by US tabloid press

Note The prototype of the 2000s celebrity-couple portmanteau. Revived in 2021 when Affleck and Lopez reunited; by that point the construction was so established that the revival got its own discussion of whether to still call it *Bennifer*.

A person who obtains food by scavenging, typically on ethical grounds.

Coined by Warren Oakes

Note Oakes, an American punk musician, distributed the zine *Why Freegan?* in 1999; the word entered mainstream press around 2003. Freeganism is explicitly anti-capitalist; many freegans eat meat scavenged from bins, contradicting the *-vegan* element.

A hybrid fitness practice combining elements of yoga and Pilates.

Coined by Louise Solomon

Note Solomon, an Australian fitness instructor, trademarked *Yogalates* in 2003 though similar hybrids had existed informally. Illustrates a 21st-century pattern: fitness innovation as brandable portmanteau.

Anxiety that an interesting event is happening elsewhere.

Coined by Patrick McGinnis

Note McGinnis used the term in a 2004 Harvard Business School magazine article. The word describes a feeling almost fully constituted by social media; its pre-2004 life was essentially nonexistent.

A mother running her own small business, often home-based.

Coined by Patricia Cobe & Ellen Parlapiano

Note Cobe and Parlapiano published *Mompreneurs* in 1996, making the word a book title before it was a category. The 2000s startup culture gave the word mainstream reach; critics note it implicitly genders a category (*entrepreneur* does not).

The Monday after Thanksgiving, marketed as an online shopping day.

Coined by Ellen Davis & Scott Silverman

Note Davis and Silverman of Shop.org coined the phrase in a 2005 press release to give e-commerce a parallel to Black Friday. Unlike Black Friday, which is organic, Cyber Monday was a deliberate marketing creation that succeeded.

A person who tries to eat only locally produced food.

Coined by Jessica Prentice

Note Prentice and three collaborators coined *locavore* for World Environment Day in San Francisco, 2005, and challenged residents to eat within a 100-mile radius. Oxford's 2007 Word of the Year.

The celebrity couple-name of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Coined by US tabloid press

Note Coined shortly after their 2005 public relationship. The couple's 2016 divorce marked the word's transition to retrospective use; the couple-blend construction it popularised still produces new variants a generation later.

The quality of seeming true without needing to be verified.

Coined by Stephen Colbert

Note Colbert used the word in the pilot episode of *The Colbert Report* (17 October 2005). The American Dialect Society named it 2005 Word of the Year; it passes the portmanteau test only loosely (the *-iness* is a productive suffix) but is commonly listed alongside blends.

To obtain work, information, or opinions from a large online group.

Coined by Jeff Howe

Note Howe coined the word in *Wired* magazine (June 2006). The word preceded its business model: Wikipedia was already five years old; the word gave the phenomenon a handle, and a wave of startups named themselves after it.

To finance a project through small contributions from many people online.

Coined by Michael Sullivan

Note Sullivan proposed the term in a August 2006 blog post about his project *fundavlog*. Kickstarter (2009) and Indiegogo (2008) made the activity mainstream; the word tracked their rise almost exactly.

Endearingly awkward or nerdy.

Coined by unknown (popularised by *New Girl*)

Note The word circulated on US entertainment blogs from 2007; the 2011 Zooey Deschanel sitcom *New Girl* made it a marketing line. Its cringe-to-cute inversion captured a specific mid-2010s aesthetic.

Fear of being without a mobile phone or phone signal.

Coined by UK YouGov study

Note Named by a YouGov study commissioned by the UK Post Office. A portmanteau of a negated phrase rather than two full words; psychologists have since debated whether it names a real clinical condition or a marketing construct.

Performing the responsibilities expected of an adult; ironic self-framing of small adult tasks.

Coined by unknown

Note Circulated on Twitter from 2008; a 2016 Kelly Williams Brown self-help book *Adulting* and the US lexicographic short-list pushed it mainstream. Describes a specific millennial discomfort with the markers of adulthood.

Imagery promoting fitness; inspirational fitness content.

Coined by unknown

Note Emerged on Tumblr in 2008; *thinspiration* (a related older word) preceded it by a decade. Eating-disorder researchers have documented substantial overlap between the two, complicating the apparently healthier framing of *fitspiration*.

A decentralised cryptocurrency based on proof-of-work blockchain consensus.

Coined by Satoshi Nakamoto

Note The pseudonymous creator coined the word in the 31 October 2008 whitepaper *Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System*. *Bit* is a fitting portmanteau element here: bit = binary digit (1948), the smallest unit of digital information.

A long-term freelancer working full-time for one employer without employee benefits.

Coined by unknown (US magazine industry)

Note The word names a specific post-2008 labour pattern — long-term workers classified as contractors to avoid benefits. Often used to critique the practice; the tax and legal disputes around permalance status have shaped gig-economy regulation.

An ostensibly humble statement intended as boasting.

Coined by Harris Wittels

Note Wittels, a *Parks and Recreation* writer, began tweeting examples in 2010 and published *Humblebrag* (2012). His 2015 death from a drug overdose at 30 made the book's breezy tone retrospectively poignant; the word has outlasted him.

Extremely impressive; wonderful (emphatic slang).

Coined by disputed (Jessica Zaino or Perez Hilton)

Note Claimed by both fashion stylist Jessica Zaino and blogger Perez Hilton. Peaked around 2012; the word is now strongly associated with a specific moment in US pop-blog English and is often used ironically.

A motto for impulsive or risk-taking behaviour: you only live once.

Coined by Drake (popularised)

Note The phrase predates Drake by decades (Goethe, Mae West, and others have variants), but Drake's 2011 song "The Motto" made the acronym-blend a generational tag. Strictly an acronym but widely treated as a portmanteau construction.

A mother running her own small business (British form of *mompreneur*).

Coined by unknown

Note The British usage mirrors the American *mompreneur* (1996) with the UK *mum*. Both attract the same critique — that mothering a business should not need its own gendered label.

The hypothesised Greek exit from the eurozone during the 2010s debt crisis.

Coined by Willem Buiter & Ebrahim Rahbari

Note Coined by the Citigroup economists in a February 2012 report. *Brexit* (June 2012) followed directly on the model of *Grexit*; the Greek exit never happened, but the construction it created produced *Frexit*, *Itexit*, and similar one-offs.

A cryptocurrency based on the *Doge* Shiba Inu meme.

Coined by Billy Markus & Jackson Palmer

Note Markus and Palmer created Dogecoin in December 2013 as a joke commentary on cryptocurrency speculation. The joke acquired a market capitalisation in the billions; a blend named after a meme became a serious financial instrument.

Perfect; exactly right (usually of an appearance).

Coined by Kayla Newman (popularised)

Note Newman's 2014 Vine video "eyebrows on fleek" launched the phrase worldwide. She never profited from the global commercial use of the phrase, a recurring pattern for Black internet creators in the 2010s; the word has since faded.

A softly out-of-shape male body type considered attractively unpretentious.

Coined by Mackenzie Pearson

Note Pearson's 2015 essay at *The Odyssey Online* went viral and made the word a US cultural moment. *Mom bod* has followed at lower intensity; both mark a brief 2010s counter-movement to aggressive body optimisation.

A mother managing her child's career (especially in entertainment).

Coined by Kris Jenner (popularised)

Note Jenner trademarked *Momager* in 2015 but had used the word publicly for years before. The Kardashian-Jenner family's commercial empire made the word the archetype for a specific celebrity-parenting model.

A member of Generation Z, born roughly 1997–2012.

Coined by unknown

Note Built on *boomer* — ironic given the two generations' usual rhetorical opposition. The 2020s pandemic meaning (relating to Zoom video calls) is coincidental and adds a second portmanteau that isn't historically the origin.

To compulsively read bad news on a phone or computer.

Coined by unknown

Note First appears on Twitter around the 2018 political news cycle; explodes during the 2020 pandemic. Merriam-Webster added it in 2021. A true portmanteau of behaviour: the word encodes both what you're reading and how you're reading it.

A cocktail consumed during lockdown isolation.

Coined by collective (US TV, pre-2020)

Note Used jokingly on the sitcom *30 Rock* in the 2000s; the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns made it a genuine social phenomenon. A useful marker of a specific 2020 moment and a reminder that portmanteau coinage often predates portmanteau relevance.

Uninvitedly joining a public or misconfigured video call to disrupt it.

Coined by unknown

Note The pandemic rush to the Zoom video platform in March 2020 created the vulnerability; *Zoombombing* was a problem, word, and mitigation feature all within a few weeks. A true digital-first portmanteau.

A pejorative for someone flouting pandemic public-health measures.

Coined by unknown

Note Used on English-language social media from early March 2020. Dictionaries flagged the word by April; by 2022 it was already dated, as the behaviours it named had become normalised or disputed rather than outrageous.

Acne caused or worsened by wearing a face mask.

Coined by US dermatology press

Note Dermatologists used the word in trade journals within weeks of mask mandates. Consumer cosmetics companies launched *maskne* product lines by mid-2020; a portmanteau that became a product category in under three months.

A synthesised video or image made using deep-learning AI to impersonate someone.

Coined by Reddit user "deepfakes"

Note A Reddit user with the handle "deepfakes" posted manipulated videos in 2017; the community name became the technique name. The word has outlasted its etymological specificity — most commercial synthetic-media tools now use transformer models rather than the original deep-learning approach.

A hybrid diet combining paleo and plant-forward eating principles.

Coined by Mark Hyman

Note Hyman, a US functional-medicine physician, coined the word in a 2015 blog post. The two diets it blends are ideologically opposed (meat-heavy vs plant-only); the blend resolves this by prioritising quality over category, which critics say produces a diet that is neither.