Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Early 20th century ·1925
Motel
motor hotel
- Meaning
- A roadside hotel with parking, designed for motorists.
- Source words
- motor + hotel
- Coined by
- Arthur Heineman
- Year
- 1925
Background
Coined when Heineman opened the Milestone Mo-Tel in San Luis Obispo, California — explicitly a hotel for motor travellers. He kept the hyphen; the word soon dropped it.
Early 20th century
Industrialisation generated new things that needed new names, fast. Motoring, electricity, telecommunications, and urban pollution all produced portmanteaus within a generation of their arrival.
Two words, one coinage.
Browse every portmanteau on the shelf — or cross over to the loanwords atlas.