I first heard this word used in the film "An Officer and a Gentleman". One of the young Navy pilots-to-be was commenting on the rather full figure of a young woman at a dance and used the phrase ". . . bodacious ta-tas"!
The discussion of portmanteaux brings to mind my pet peeve-workaholic.
If we followed the example of infotainment, we should combine work and the ic from alcohol-ic. To use work-aholic would be the same as if we created "infotertainment".
Now workahiolic is a more colorful and easily recognized word than workic would be. I don't know if you all would prefer to play by the rules/guidelines, or if you feel it's ok to be more relaxed about creating portmanteaux.
I don't think that there is a set-in-stone method of creating a portmanteau Stevo, so workaholic seems perfectly fine since it is easily recognizable for what it describes and is easy to say.
Portmanteau, I believe, are generally created so that they can slip off of the tongue. The hard-to-pronounce ones, like infotainment, are more often seen in print since nobody really wants to be sputtering over a word - you look more foolish than "in the know" about the new word.
Hi chb and Stevo
Is bodacious a portmanteau word? What ore the original words?
I always thought it just meant big or fabulous, either.