Portmanteau, a Trunk Full of Words?
A few weeks ago we learned about “magpiety,” a word created by yoking together the two words “magpie” and “piety.” This combination of both words and meanings to create new ones in fact has a name of its own: portmanteau.
Originally the word portmanteau didn’t mean anything at all. ‘Port’ is a French prefix denoting an object that carries the word following it. ‘Manteau’ means cloak. With the two together, you now have the word for a cloak-carrying object. That’s right, a suitcase.
In its earliest incarnations, portmanteau referred to any bag that could easily be carried on horseback, but it evolved over time to mean the big, hinged, hard-sided pieces we would normally imagine today. Think one of those hefty leather jobs that look really good on old steam trains, preferably surrounded by dapper gents in suave hats and ladies with plenty of silk.
Language is about communication. It’s about conveying a message that someone else can understand. When two groups don’t speak the same language, translators come in to aid the process.
But what about the case that the goal is to not be understood? In military tactics, one of the most crucial requirements is the ability to quickly and reliably send messages that your enemy cannot understand, but your friends can. It’s a tough balance to strike. And at the height of World War II, the Allied forces found themselves in a pickle.
Does Hashish Make You an Assassin?
There may at first appear to be little connection between a ruthless, bloodthirsty assassin and a relaxed cannabis high. But assassination is a stressful job, and the latter can make it a little easier for the former to do his job without panicking. Or so the rumor goes.
Today Mexico has the largest population of Spanish speakers in the world. Of those 117 million people, 60% trace their ancestry back to Spain. That’s more people than the entire population of Spain itself. How exactly that came about is a complex story involving things like guns and boats and sheer dumb luck, but it boils down to this: the Aztec empire was brought to its knees by a 17-year-old girl named Doña Marina doing translations into Spanish.