Indefinite Composites and Word-Coinage 9 
tendency toward the jocular; but still more characteristic is the 
focussing of interest in the expressive. 
It is probable enough that the words in the short illustrative list 
cited are not especially well selected from the many that suggest 
themselves. No doubt some among them may be in origin direct 
amalgams, or contaminations; others may not really be amalgams 
at all; they may have had for example a purely onomatopoetic 
origin, or they may be loan words; or they may be mere accidental 
or capricious perversions of forms already in existence. But 
some are surely obscure blendings, or reminiscent amalgams, of 
the type under discussion. 
415 
