Our highly networked and complex world has given rise to the need for new, hybrid words. As a result, portmanteaus—a linguistic mash-up of two words that means “a large trunk opening in two equal parts” in French—have become a modern necessity. Portmanteaus are not new; Lewis Carroll popularized the use of the term in his book Through the Looking G

To underscore their modernity, filing cabinets were called ‘equipment,’ ‘appliances,’ and ‘machines’ — not furniture.