* Soap: This refers to the fact that early radio dramas were sponsored by soap companies. These companies targeted housewives as their primary audience, and the dramas often focused on domestic issues and melodramatic storylines.
* Opera: This refers to the dramatic and often melodramatic nature of the stories.
Therefore, the process used to form the word "soap opera" is blending, where two words are combined to create a new word with a unique meaning.