How to Choose a Secure and Hack-Proof Email Password
Monday August 18, 2008
"You see," says Humpty Dumpty, "it's like a portmanteau — there are two meanings packed up into one word."
It, of course, is "slithy", a term in the poem Jabberwocky, which Alice asked Humpty to explain. Thus Lewis Carroll coined portmanteau word for a blend — a word made up of other words, or word fragments. Prominent portmanteau words are "brunch" ("breakfast" plus "lunch"), "pixel" ("picture" plus "element"), "qubit" ("quantum" plus "bit") or "Microsoft" ("microcomputer" plus "software").
Incidentally, we'll encounter both "Microsoft" and the portmanteau way of coining words while securing our email password:
›› Secure your email account from hackers breaking into it with a strong password. Here's how to turn your favorite sentence into a complex password that defeats many an attack.
It, of course, is "slithy", a term in the poem Jabberwocky, which Alice asked Humpty to explain. Thus Lewis Carroll coined portmanteau word for a blend — a word made up of other words, or word fragments. Prominent portmanteau words are "brunch" ("breakfast" plus "lunch"), "pixel" ("picture" plus "element"), "qubit" ("quantum" plus "bit") or "Microsoft" ("microcomputer" plus "software").
Incidentally, we'll encounter both "Microsoft" and the portmanteau way of coining words while securing our email password:
›› Secure your email account from hackers breaking into it with a strong password. Here's how to turn your favorite sentence into a complex password that defeats many an attack.
Comments
I was not familiar with the english use of the word “portmanteau”, very interesting. The same word is in common usage in the french vocabulary to mean any kind of “coat rack”.
Hi,
great find — thanks much for sharing!
Il porte (carries) les manteaux (coats), so portmanteau makes sense for a coat rack. Come to think of it, “coat tree” sounds a lot like Lewis Carroll, too…