2 Louise Pound 
at the present time.t’ For one thing, the modern bent toward con- 
scious analysis of language, the persistent interest in etymology, 
and the increased knowledge of the processes of word-formation, 
have led to increased self-consciousness in the handling of lan- 
guage. They have brought greater relish of peculiar or character- 
istic usages, and hence more effort—sometimes desperate and 
varied effort—to reach new linguistic effects. Other factors that 
may have helped to give special impetus to the present inclination 
toward fusion forms are the popularization of writing of all kinds 
through the spread of education and the multiplication of readers, 
the creation of a class of professional humorous, or semi-humor- 
ous writers, mainly journalistic, and lastly the growth of realism, 
which has swept into print a mass of dialect forms, whimsical, 
perverted, and fantastic, such as never crossed the linguistic 
horizon of the average reader of a hundred years ago. Especially 
frequent of creation at present, and accepted in standing, are 
blend-formations in scientific nomenclature, as chloroform, or for- 
maldehyde, and designations created for various newly invented 
articles in trade, as Nabisco wafers, made by the National Biscuit 
Company, Sealpackerchief, for a sealed package of pocket hand- 
kerchiefs, Pneu-Vac, for a vacuum cleaner, or Locomobile, for a 
certain variety of automobile. 
But there has not been recognition, at least not specific or defi- 
nitely formulated recognition, of the fact that vague or indefinite 
blending exists as a mode of word-formation alongside the more 
obvious and intentional amalgamation which has challenged and 
monopolized attention hitherto. The suggestion may be specula- 
tive or conjectural, rather than concretely demonstrable; but the 
hypothesis here put forward, if valid, sheds light in a few dark 
corners of the etymological field. The most usual modes of creat- 
ing folk-words at the present time are through imitation of nat- 
ural sounds, as fizz, kersplash, chug-chug; through analogical ex- 
1In a forthcoming study entitled Blends: Their Relation to English 
W ord-Formation, to be issued in the Anglistische Forschungen series, the 
author expects to illustrate fully their vogue and the frequency of 
their coinage at the present time, and to note their various usages and 
characteristics. 
408 
