My wife and I have coined a Portmanteau using the words "tragedy" and "travesty": it could be spelled "trajesty" or "tragesty". We both misunderstood the word travesty to be a synonym with tragedy; now I know that that is incorrect - it appears that I am not alone (for example). Just for reference, travesty means a false, absurd, or distorted representation of something.
I prefer the spelling of "trajesty", mainly because it looks better. However, I also prefer it because it reminds me of a court jester, one who would often present a false or absurd representation of something merely for entertainment purposes.
What do you guys think the perfect application of the term "trajesty" would be?
What are some of your favorite Portmanteau's?
Your invention sounds almost like  tragicomedy,  though it's more like where tragedy is made light of ,  or treated humorously.
Is  ginormous a portmanteau?  I first noticed it from Australian wildlife films,  and of  late occasionally  on American TV.
There was a Don Martin cartoon in Mad Magazine in the early 1060d, about the time they got rid of the Department of Marginal Thinking, when it stopped being funny of guy in a tuxedo who stepped in front of an orchestra, grabbed baton out of a satchel, waved it, and the boys in the band suddenly were six foot rabbits, and he suddenly realized he had grabbed the satchel that said "magician", not "musician". I always think of that cartoon when I hear mathemagical numbers tossed around, like a political debate or a Fox News broadcast.
There was a debate this week where the incumbent mayor was tossing out that there was a reduction in crime over the last year, the challenger was talking a rise in crime over the mayor's term. Turns out, when the news people did the fact checking, the one was talking violent crime, the other all crime, which went in opposite directions, the one was talking the city, the other about the metro statistical area. In any case, they were both lying through misrepresenting statistics, showing that politicians locally outnumber statesmen, 2-0, which is probably true most everywhere.
in any case mathemagical is my favorite portmanteau to hate.
RobertB said
Your invention sounds almost like  tragicomedy,  though it's more like where tragedy is made light of ,  or treated humorously.Is  ginormous a portmanteau?  I first noticed it from Australian wildlife films,  and of  late occasionally  on American TV.
I believe it is: gigantic + enormous
deaconB said: in any case mathemagical is my favorite portmanteau to hate.
Did you mean to type "to date" instead of "to hate"? As someone who's doing tutoring in math, I really like that term. Working with a 7th grader currently, and he's having trouble with mixed numbers and fractions. I use that term all the time to grab my tutoree's attention and add a little "fun" to the process.