Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Mid-century: TV and science ·1956
Rockabilly
rock hillbilly
- Meaning
- An early rock-and-roll genre combining country and R&B elements.
- Source words
- rock + hillbilly
- Coined by
- unknown (US music press)
- Year
- 1956
Background
First appears in Billboard in 1956 to describe the Memphis Sun Records sound (Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis). A neat portmanteau: the music itself blended country (*hillbilly*) with *rock*, and the name documents the blending.
Mid-century: TV and science
Two engines dominated: television (sitcom, televangelist) and post-war big science (pulsar, transistor). Many mid-century coinages came from scientific style sheets and industry journals.
Two words, one coinage.
Browse every portmanteau on the shelf — or cross over to the loanwords atlas.