On May 6, 2022 I blogged about Who popularized the word glossophobia? What is a better Plain English alternative? I suggested ‘speech fright’ would be better. Perhaps even better would be to make it a portmanteau, speechfright. Portmanteau is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as:
“…a word or part of a word made by combining the spellings and meanings of two or more words or word parts (such as smog from smoke and fog).”
Stage fright also can get this treatment - becoming stagefright. Wikipedia says that originally:
“A portmanteau is a piece of luggage, usually made of leather and opening into two equal parts.”
I’ve illustrated portmanteau by an anonymous version of the Wikimedia Commons image for a famous medical bag.
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