Blends and Hybrids Everywhere

Those who hadn’t heard of hybrid or blended teaching ended up hearing about them during the past year or two. While the two terms were often used synonymously prior to the pandemic, lately they seem to have developed divergent meanings: blended learning for that taking place partly online and partly face to face for the same individuals, and hybrid learning for classes that are taught mainly face to face while allowing remote attendance for those that cannot be there physically.

Blends are in fact everywhere around us, as illustrated in the words we use. We are constantly creating words through lexical blends (also referred to as portmanteau words). Blog is a blend of web and log; Spanglish, Spanish and English; maglev, magnetic and levitation, and technocrat, technology aristocrat.

Lexical blends also appear in words for everyday things, such as food, drink, and clothes. Here are a few: flexitarian (flexible vegetarian); mocktail (mock cocktail) and jeggings (jeans leggings).

Lately, some blends relating to animal crossbreeds have caught my attention. I thought I would share some of these in the hope that even those who are not animal enthusiasts would be entertained or at least enlightened. Note that not all of these terms have entered the dictionaries – only a few.

Cama: a cross between a camel and a llama

Coywolf: coyote and wolf

Geep or Shoat:  crossbreeds between goats and sheep (rare and usually stillborn due to genetic distance)

Jagleon: jaguar and lion

Leopon: leopard and lion

Liger and Tigon: crossbreeds between lions and tigers. In the first case, the father is a lion, while in the second case, the father is a tiger.

Wholphin: whale and dolphin

Zonkey: zebra and donkey

Zorse: zebra and horse

Finally, some of the newest word blends around these days relate to Covid: Covax and covidiot. Earlier, we saw plandemic, which does not seem to have survived very well.

What new blends will 2022 bring? Let’s watch and see.