Word To Use Today: ortanique.

I don't usually like portmanteau words very much. Portmanteau words are the ones where half of one word is jammed together with half of another, often to distressingly ugly effect.

I mean, I still haven't got over the shock of homillionare, yet. Let alone beefalo. Or biopic.

Even so, occasionally something elegant emerges from the portmanteau process, and we end up with a word that isn't still bleeding from having been cobbled together with baling twine and a blunt needle.

Such a one is ortanique.

As it happens, an ortanique is a hybrid of an orange and a tangerine. 

Ortaniques may well taste disgusting, and I admit that no one has a chance of guessing what an ortanique is from the name. But at least they sound delicately refined.

And that's something.



Word To Use Today: ortanique. Although this sounds French (generally a good ploy, with food) it's actually made up of or[ange], tan[gerine] and [un]ique. I think I'd have to call that process hideously clever.