1647-8. Herrick, Poems [Hazlitt, Works, ii. 273]. This loue-guarded parradice—Above the entrance there is written this, This is the portail to the bower of blisse.
Portcullis (or Portcullis
money), subs. phr. (old colloquial).—Money,
of various values,
temp. Elizabeth, struck for the
East India Company (est. 1599):
also India money [it bore a
portcullis verso].
1599. Jonson, Every Man Out of ] Humour, iii. 6. It comes well, for I had not so much as the least portcullice of coyn before.
Porter, subs. (old: long recognised).—'Hirelings
to carry Burthens,
Beasts of Burthen, or else
Menial Servants set to guard the
gates in a great Man's House.'—B.
E. (c.1696).
Porterhouse-steak, subs. phr.
(American).—A chop from the
middle of the sirloin—with upper
and undercut: occasionally, but
improperly, from the wing-rib.
1870. Clemens, Innocents Abroad, xiii. One would not be at all surprised to hear him say: 'A mutton-roast to-day, or will you have a nice porterhouse-steak?'
Porter's-knot, subs. phr. (obsolete).—A
large bob of hair, with
a hanging curl: fashionable with
women in the Sixties: also
waterfall, cataract, &c.
Port-hole, subs. (venery).—(1)
The fundament: see Bum; and
(2) the female pudendum: see
Monosyllable.
1664. Cotton, Virgil Travestle (1st ed.) 15. Bounce cries the port-hole, out they fly, And make the world dance Barnaby.
Portionist, subs. (University).—See
Postmaster.
Portmantle (portmantick or
portmantua), subs. (once literary:
now vulgar).—A corruption
of 'portmanteau.'
[?] Robin Hood and the Butcher [Child, Ballads, v. 38]. And out of the sheriff's portmantle He told three hundred pounds.
1617-30. Howell, Letters, 127 [Oliphant, New English, ii. 79. Buckingham, in his Spanish journey carries a portmantle under his arm; our form of the word was to come seven years later.]
1623. Mabbe, Guzman (1630) 158 [Oliphant, New English, ii. 86. We see portmanteau in page 158, and the form portmantua in the Index; our mantua-maker is a relic of this confusion].
1690. Hacket, Life of Williams, i. 160. He would linger no longer, and play at cards in King Philip's palace till the messenger with the port-mantick came from Rome.
1726. Vanbrugh, Provoked Husband, i. i. My lady's gear alone were as much as filled four portmantel trunks.
1753. Mrs. Lennox, Henrietta, v. x. He sent orders to a servant to bring his portmantua.
Portmanteau-word, subs. phr.
(common).—A made vocable
packed with two or more
meanings: e.g., slithy = lithe
+ slimy; torrible = torrid +
horrible; squarson = squire +
parson; squirshop = squire +
bishop. [The name was Lewis
Carrol's, the method Bishop Sam.
Wilberforce's.]
1876. Lewis Carrol, Hunting of the Snark, Preface. [Concerning] portmanteau-words—take the two words 'fuming' and 'furious.' Make up your mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will say first . . . if you have that rarest of gifts, a perfectly balanced mind, you will say 'frumious.'
1892. Globe, 12 Oct., 1. 4. In these circumstances it is really surprising that so few of these portmanteau words, as Lewis Carroll called them, are perpetrated.
