The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term is also present in the process called blending. However, blending is typically accomplished by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word. In some parts of the USA, there’s a product that is used like gasoline, but is made from alcohol, so the “blended” word for referring to this product is gasohol. To talk about the combined Word formation 55 effects of smoke and fog, we can use the word smog. In places where they have a lot of this stuff, they can jokingly make a distinction between smog, smaze (smoke + haze) and smurk (smoke + murk). In Hawai’i, near the active volcano, they have problems with vog. Some other commonly used examples of blending are bit (binary/digit), brunch (breakfast/lunch), motel (motor/hotel) and telecast (television/broadcast).

The activity of fund-raising on television that feels like a marathon is typically called a telethon, while infotainment (information/entertainment) and simulcast (simultaneous/broadcast) are other new blends from life with television. To describe the mixing of languages, some people talk about Franglais (French/Anglais) and Spanglish (Spanish/English). In a few blends, we combine the beginnings of both words, as in terms from information technology, such as telex (teleprinter/exchange) or modem (modulator/demodulator). There is also the word fax, but that is not a blend. It’s an example of our next category.