Lodium

1. My portmanteau is Lodium

2. Lodium is a word that describes a food item as being low in sodium.

3. I did use this word at home, with friends and family, and in restaurants.

4. When I first used the word I was met with curious faces and even grimaces as if I had misspoken.  I was always asked to repeat myself.  When I was directly asked what it meant, I would say, “You know, as in low sodium.”  All of a sudden a big grin would come over their faces and they would reply in agreement, “oh yeah, I get it!”  Then they couldn’t help themselves but to repeat the word after me.   A family member told me that she loved it and said that since we should all seek to eat low sodium food, she thought it was a good thing I was using it, not knowing I had created it.  Another family member said, “Excuse me?” and, “Can you repeat that?” followed by “How do you spell that?”  When I went to Panda Express and asked for lodium soy sauce, the girl at the counter handed it to me as if I had said a real word.  I was surprisingly nervous to ask a complete stranger this word, perhaps because I felt silly, but it was well received.  One friend of mine has noticeably used the word repeatedly.  I think that for him, it’s actually caught on.  Most interesting of all is that I accidentally said it out loud myself.  I suppose the next call will be to Webster’s dictionary.