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porter
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈpɔɹtɚ/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈpɔːtə/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA(key): /ˈpo(ː)ɹtɚ/
- (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA(key): /ˈpoətə/
- Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)
Etymology 1
From Middle English porter, portere, portier, borrowed from Anglo-Norman portour and Old French porteor, from Late Latin portātor, from past participle of Latin portāre (“to carry”). By surface analysis, port (“to carry”) + -er.
Noun
porter (plural porters)
- A person who carries luggage and related objects.
- By the time I reached the train station I was exhausted, but fortunately there was a porter waiting.
- c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
- Achilles! a drayman, a porter, a very camel.
- 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:
- the unsmotherable delight of all the porters and by - standers
- 1954 February, Trevor Holloway, “Canada's Transcontinental Routes”, in Railway Magazine, page 130:
- The man who carries your luggage at the station is a "red cap", not a porter. The Canadian porter is the man who makes up the beds in the sleeping cars.
- 2022 December 14, David Turner, “The Edwardian Christmas getaway...”, in RAIL, number 972, page 35:
- Tips were an important part of porters' income, and at Christmas passengers felt there was extra pressure to give them - despite some perceiving the level of service to be poor.
- (entomology) An ant having the specialized role of carrying.
- (computing) One who ports software (makes it usable on another platform).
- 1998, Michael McMillan, Perl from the Ground Up, page 45:
- […] useful only if you are a Perl porter or implementor and you want to check the efficiency of the hashing algorithm.
Hyponyms
- (carrier of burdens): jampani (jampan-bearer); dandy-wallah (dandy-bearer)
Derived terms
Translations
person who carries luggage
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Etymology 2
From Middle English porter, portere, portare, borrowed from Anglo-Norman portour and Old French portier, from Late Latin portarius (“gatekeeper”), from Latin porta (“gate”).
Noun
porter (countable and uncountable, plural porters)
- (countable) A person in control of the entrance to a building.
- (countable, bowling) An employee who clears and cleans tables and puts bowling balls away.
- (countable, uncountable, beer) A strong, dark ale, originally favored by porters (etymology 1, sense 1), similar to a stout but less strong.
- Coordinate term: stout
- (beer, Ireland) Stout (malt brew).
- 1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Counterparts”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 107:
- ‘Here, Pat, give us a g.p., like a good fellow.’ The curate brought him a glass of plain porter. The man drank it at a gulp and asked for a caraway seed.
Derived terms
Descendants
- → Irish: pórtar
Translations
person in control of a building entrance
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employee who puts bowling balls away
strong, dark ale weaker than a stout
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(Ireland) another name for stout — see stout
Verb
porter (third-person singular simple present porters, present participle portering, simple past and past participle portered)
- To serve as a porter; to carry.
Anagrams
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Catalan
Etymology
From porta + -er or from Old Catalan porter, from Late Latin portārius, from Latin porta. Compare French portier.
Pronunciation
Noun
porter m (plural porters)
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
- “porter”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
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French
Etymology 1
Inherited from Old French porter, from Latin portāre, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“go, traverse”).
Pronunciation
Verb
porter
- to carry
- to support, to bear
- to wear
- (intransitive) to be about, to concern [with sur]
- Sur quoi portait la question ? ― What was the question concerning?
- (reflexive, se porter) to feel, to carry one's self
- Je me porte mieux. ― I am feeling better.
- Il se porte bien. ― He's in good health.
Conjugation
Conjugation of porter (see also Appendix:French verbs)
Conjugation of se porter (see also Appendix:French verbs)
Derived terms
- la nuit porte conseil
- porté disparu
- porter à ébullition
- porter à faux
- porter assistance
- porter atteinte
- porter aux nues
- porter bonheur
- porter dans son cœur
- porter de l'eau à la rivière
- porter la culotte
- porter la poisse
- porter le chapeau
- porter malheur
- porter ombrage
- porter plainte
- porter préjudice
- porter sa croix
- porter secours
- porter ses fruits
- se faire porter pâle
- se porter comme un charme
- se porter garant
Related terms
Etymology 2
Pronunciation
Noun
porter m (plural porters)
- porter (beer)
- 1884, Joris-Karl Huysmans, chapter XI, in À rebours [Against the Grain]:
- il […] étancha sa soif avec le porter, cette bière noire qui sent le jus de réglisse dépouillé de sucre.
- He quenched his thirst with some porter, that dark beer which smells of unsweetened liquorice.
Further reading
- “porter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
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Ladin
Etymology
Verb
porter
- to carry
Conjugation
- Ladin conjugation varies from one region to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.
Conjugation of porter (first conjugation)
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Latin
Verb
porter
Middle English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Anglo-Norman porter, portour, from a combination of Late Latin portārius and portātor, portātōrem; equivalent to port + -er.
Pronunciation
Noun
porter (plural porters)
Descendants
References
- “portē̆r, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
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Middle French
Etymology
From Old French porter, from Latin portō, portāre.
Verb
porter
- to carry
- porter la banniere
- to carry the banner
Conjugation
- Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.
Conjugation of porter
Descendants
- French: porter
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Norman
Alternative forms
- portaïr (Guernsey)
Etymology
From Old French porter, from Latin portō, portāre.
Pronunciation
Verb
porter
Derived terms
- porter un coup (“to strike”)
- portchi (“porter”)
Norwegian Bokmål
Noun
porter m
- indefinite plural of port
Old French
Etymology
Verb
porter
Conjugation
This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. The forms that would normally end in *-ts, *-tt are modified to z, t. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.
Related terms
Descendants
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Romanian
Etymology
Noun
porter n (uncountable)
- porter (beer)
Declension
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