Paronomasia

The humble pun (or paronomasia for sophisticated snobs) has been present as long as the written word itself. They have been found amongst the Egyptians, the Mayans, even in Ancient Iraq. Puns are hilarious and awesome, like alligators, they have used their awesome-osity to withstand the ravages of time.

There are six types of pun: Compound puns, graphological puns, homographic puns, homonymic puns, morphological puns and recursive puns. Of course you will never come upon any circumstance in life where you will need to know the specifics of each definition so I won't bother to explain them. Just remember that there are six.

Of all these six, my favourite would have to be the morphological pun, also known as a 'portmanteau'(pronounced: Port-Man-Toe), because of how applicable it is to 90% of real life situations. You see, a morphological pun is simply combining- or morphing- two words together to make one more suitable and therefore better word.

Examples include combining 'true' and 'touché' to make the 'truché', or 'angry' and 'hungry' to become 'hungry'. The morphological pun is limited only be your imagination and the combinability of the words in your vocabulary.

What are examples of common portmanteau's in your literary arsenal?