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May 29, 2017
This week’s themePortmanteaux (blend words) This week’s words glocalize solunar judder dripple masstige 
Texarkana (Texas + Arkansas)
Photo: Steve Snodgrass
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargIn a recent issue of the National Geographic magazine I came across this sentence: “A few gravel streets run past a school, church, post office, supermarket, hardware store, health clinic, gas station, washateria, ...” “Whoa!” I thought. “What’s a washateria?” I had never seen this word, yet the writer used it without a gloss, indicating it’s a common word. Well, I was able to figure out its meaning from the spelling and the context. I guessed it must be a blend of wash + cafeteria, meaning a self-serve laundry or a laundromat (which is also a blend: launder + automatic) and that’s what it is. Of the many ways to create a new word, making a blend is the favorite of marketers (camcorder: camera + recorder) and for good reason: it makes it easy to figure out what a product is. This week we’ll see five words coined by blending other words. These words are also known as portmanteaux. glocalizePRONUNCIATION:
(GLO-kuh-lyz)
MEANING:
verb tr.: To make a product or service available widely, but adapted for local markets.
ETYMOLOGY:
A blend of global and localize. Earliest documented use: 1989.
USAGE:
“Communications have also been glocalized. Facebook, the global power on
the rise, is an expression of this.” Uri Savir; Glocalization; Jerusalem Post (Israel); Feb 24, 2012. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts,
foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation
that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open
market is a nation that is afraid of its people. -John F. Kennedy, 35th US
president (29 May 1917-1963)
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