| roachboy |
03-13-2009 01:05 PM |
i like how many things are stuffed into the word portmanteau.
Quote:
[< Middle French, French portemanteau officer who carries the mantle of a person in a high position (1507 in Middle French), case or bag for carrying clothing (1547), clothes rack (1640) < porte- PORTE- comb. form + manteau MANTEAU n.
With {beta} forms compare MANTUA n.2 and discussion at that entry.
In {gamma} forms apparently influenced by MANTLE n.
With the form portmanty (see {delta} forms) compare MANTY n. Compare also POCKMANTY n.]
1. A case or bag for carrying clothing and other belongings when travelling; (originally) one of a form suitable for carrying on horseback; (now esp.) one in the form of a stiff leather case hinged at the back to open into two equal parts.
{alpha} 1553 in J. B. Paul Accts. Treasurer Scotl. (1913) X. 197, vj quarteris bukrum to be ane portemantew to my lorde governour. 1579 T. NORTH tr. Plutarch Lives Noble Grecians & Romanes 1040 The sauor of this fleshe brought a woulfe to him, that caried away the fleshe and the portmantew it was wrapt in. 1598 J. FLORIO Worlde of Wordes, A cloke-bag, a male, a port-manteawe. 1635 J. HAYWARD tr. G. F. Biondi Banish'd Virgin 124 Taking..from off his saddle-bow a portmanteau, and out of it some victuals. 1689 D. GRENVILLE Lett. (1861) 76 They search'd my portmantoe and plundered me of a bagg of mony. 1751 T. SMOLLETT Peregrine Pickle (1779) II. xxxv. 8 Their trunks and portmanteaus must be carried to the Custom-house. 1792 C. SMITH Desmond II. xxx, My clothes, about which I had never thought, were inquired for in the chaise, and the small portmanteau I had was produced untouched. 1866 ‘G. ELIOT’ Felix Holt I. i. 35 Feeling in his pockets for the keys of his portmanteaus. 1894 Country Gentlemen's Catal. 152 Solid leather portmanteaux, ladies' dress baskets. 1928 J. DEVANNY Dawn Beloved ix. 107 Dawn..opened his old portmanteau and took out the things. 1994 R. DAVIES Cunning Man 421 Small wonder that in the portmanteau strapped to the back of the motor-bike there was always a Baby Bear of the cheapest rye.
{beta} 1581 Deposition 14 Sept. in Hereford Municipal Docs. 1519-93 (Herefordshire Archives BG 1 1/17/3, MS 56), Beinge examined wheather he broughte some portmantua to this citie or not confessethe he dyd bringe one..[and] saiethe mr maior..knowethe as well as he what is in yt. 1585 Protocol Bk. W. Cumming (Edinb. Reg. House) f. 75, Ane sadyll with ryding geyr with port mantua. 1601-2 in T. G. Law Archpriest Controv. (1898) II. 41 They sent theyr portmantuas to St. Paules monastery. a1641 T. HEYWOOD Captives (1953) II. i. 28 A budget..or portmantua, w[hi]ch included: all the bawdes wealth. 1654 GEN. MONCK Let. 29 July in C. H. Firth Scotl. & Protectorate 152 Atholl's portmantua. 1750 M. CLANCY Sharper 47 (stage direct.) Enter Sawny..carrying a Portmantua. 1765 H. TIMBERLAKE Mem. 9 One of them..actually fell, letting my portmantua into the water. 1782 Royal Gaz. 8 May 1/2 (advt.) He has upon hands a few neat Gentlemen and Lady's Saddles, bridles, portmantuas, [etc.]. 1807 J. D. BURK Bethlem Gabor II. 18 Frederick Henry Bergamotte..for whom so many bright eyes vainly languish! hundred billet doux in my portmantua. 1852 THACKERAY Hist. Henry Esmond v. 95 Mr. Esmond bade his servant pack a portmantua and get horses.
{gamma} ?1602 Portmantle [implied in sense 3a]. 1612 North's Plutarch 977 The flesh and the portmantle [1595 -mantew] it was wrapt in. 1654 E. GAYTON Pleasant Notes Don Quixot IV. ii. 181 The spoiles of Cardenio's Port-Mantle. 1703 G. FARQUHAR Twin-rivals III. ii. 33 What makes you sit upon the Port-Mantel, Teague? 1778 Jrnls. Continental Congr. (U.S.) (1904-37) X. 312 For each trooper..a saddle, halters, curry-comb and brush, portmantle, picket cord, and pack saddle. 1821 SCOTT Kenilworth I. viii. 219 The small portmantle which contained his necessaries. 1883 E. PENNELL-ELMHIRST Cream Leics. 189 The portmantillos that in these days..fill up the small of each belted second horseman's back. 1924 J. H. WILKINSON Leeds Dial. Gloss. 169 Poortmantle, portmanteau.
{delta} a1613 Port-manque [implied in sense 3a]. a1670 J. HACKET Scrinia Reserata (1693) I. 160 Till the Messenger with the Port-mantick came from Rome. 1680 in 12th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1890) App. VII. 394 Paid for a new large portmante 16s. 1686 London Gaz. No. 2100/4, [They] had with them a Leathern Port~manty. 1897 C. M. CAMPBELL Deilie Jock 259 We..got oor portmantys and booked to Worcester.
{epsilon} a1632 T. TAYLOR God's Judgem. (1642) II. v. 73 Feeling what weight the portmantuan had. 1682 in Early Rec. Providence, Rhode Island (1894) VI. 80 In ye out Celler, i. Portmantium..In ye Portmanteam, 3 Cases of leather. 1698 R. FERGUSON View Ecclesiastick Pref., He..is degraded to come behind with the Portmanten.
{dag}2. An officer or aide responsible for bearing the robes of the king of France. Obs. rare.
1597 G. GILPIN Let. 12 Feb. in N. & Q. (1899) 30 Dec. 537/1 Here is arrived from the King of France a porte-manteau, who brought the ratification under the great seal of the agreements and treaty.
3. fig.
a. Any container, receptacle, etc.; a repository or mixture of a number of disparate ideas, arguments, etc.
?1602 Narcissus (Rawl. Poet. 212) (1893) 11 O thou whose breast..is..prudences portmantle. a1613 T. OVERBURY Wife (1638) 263 That the soules of Women and Lovers, are wrapt in the port-manque of their senses. 1641 R. GREVILLE Disc. Nature Episcopacie I. iv. 11 As sure to finde the Spirit in a conge d'eslire, as others not long since, in the Tridentine Port-mantile. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 28 Apr. 3/1 The demand for the franchise was..a kind of portmanteau into which all our grievances could be stuffed and dispatched to Pretoria. 1993 Insight 11 Oct. 28/2 The portmanteau of inanities and false pieties that they unveiled..will lead to nothing more than a few more tons of bureaucracy.
b. A word formed by blending sounds from two or more distinct words and combining their meanings (see also Compounds 2a). Also more generally: a term or phrase which encompasses two or more meanings (see also Compounds 2b).
[1871 ‘L. CARROLL’ Through Looking-glass vi. 127 Well, ‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy’... You see it's like a portmanteau{em}there are two meanings packed up into one word.] 1871 ‘L. CARROLL’ Through Looking-glass vi. 129 ‘Mimsy’ is ‘flimsy and miserable’ (there's another portmanteau for you). 1991 Internat. Affairs 67 230 The term ‘regional security’ is usually used as a portmanteau to cover at least three different elements of security.
c. Linguistics. A morph which represents two or more morphemes simultaneously. See also Compounds 2c.
1947 Language 23 339 Some may..prefer to reinterpret portmanteaus as bimorphic as well as bimorphemic, even though to do so one must extend the definition of ‘morph’ to cover elements of other than overt phonemic content. 1950 Language 26 84 If we find it more convenient to regard these forms as single morphs, we must at least take them to be portmanteaus, and not completely arbitrary ones. 1971 D. KASTOVSKY Stud. in Morphology{em}Aspects of Eng. & German Verb Inflection 17 [In German verbs] person and number always occur together and thus form a complex morphemic unit (portmanteau). 1992 A. M. ZWICKY in R. Levine Formal Gram. vi. 362 There are morphosyntactically problematic phenomena{em}including..some of the things that have been labelled as compounds, incorporations, serializations, phrasal affixes, bound word clitics, and (syntactic) portmanteaus{em}that resist any simple analysis in which each W of syntax instantiates a single lexeme and each lexeme is instantiated by a single W.
{dag}4. A clothes rack, an arrangement of pegs to hang clothes on. Obs.
1728 E. CHAMBERS Cycl., Port-Manteau, a piece of Joiner's Work, fasten'd to the Wall, in a Wardrobe, Armory, &c. proper for the hanging on of Cloaks, Hats, &c. 1847 C. BRONTĖ Jane Eyre II. x. 272 It took the light, held it aloft and surveyed the garments pendant from the portmanteau.
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and i both like and detest the word "deplane" |
