Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Early 20th century ·1928
Tigon
tiger lion
- Meaning
- The hybrid offspring of a male tiger and a female lion.
- Source words
- tiger + lion
- Coined by
- Karl Hagenbeck
- Year
- 1928
Background
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.
Early 20th century
Industrialisation generated new things that needed new names, fast. Motoring, electricity, telecommunications, and urban pollution all produced portmanteaus within a generation of their arrival.
Two words, one coinage.
Browse every portmanteau on the shelf — or cross over to the loanwords atlas.