Scalito and other name-blends

Benjamin Zimmer bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU
Mon Oct 31 19:10:03 UTC 2005


We're hearing a lot today about how Samuel Alito is nicknamed "Scalito"
because of his similarity to Antonin Scalia. I'm trying to think of other
cases where an epithet blending names A and B is applied to person A to
suggest a similarity to person B. There must be other examples from the
political world, but the only one I can think of is "McStarrthy", which
was used on Ken Starr to imply a similarity to Joseph McCarthy (see, e.g.:
<http://blog.rjwest.com/?m=20050325>).

This of course is a separate issue from name-blends involving celebrity
couples (Bennifer, Brangelina, TomKat) or other such conflations (e.g.,
Ben Bradlee calling Woodward and Bernstein "Woodstein").


--Ben Zimmer



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