I've heard people use phrases like "Google-Fu" when they are trying to combine the ideas of their google skills with a martial art like Kung Fu. e.g. someone might say "my Google-Fu is not that good", when asked to look something up. How would one describe the meaning of these types of word combinations to someone else, in an abbreviated way? Is there a word to describe this kind of pattern?
EDIT: it is not clear to me that these kind of words exactly fit the definition of either portmanteau or snowclone
Best Answer
These kinds of words are commonly lumped together with all new formulations as neologisms.
Their meaning, in the case of the combinatory neologism, is fundamentally metaphorical: it asks us to understand one thing in the context of another. For example, the word "Google-Fu" asks us to consider one's ability to effectively utilize the Google Search Engine as though it were a martial art, a perhaps more easily understood physical skillset honed over years of practice with connotations of flexibility, finesse, and power.
Because of this metaphorical component, it is also possible to describe these combinatory neologisms as kennings. This is a very old concept in the English language's deep past, deriving from the poetic sensibilities of its Anglo-Saxon speakers - kenning is a metaphorical combination of two concepts for the purpose of emphasizing certain characteristics about what they describe. The stereotypical kenning trotted out from Beowulf would be to describe the sea as a "whale-road" - emphasizing the greatness and alienation of the ocean - it is a large place fit for monsters to travel through, not so much puny hominids in rickety wooden vessels. I personally like to describe Stack Exchange as a wizardry-machine.