Portmanteau (luggage)

A 16-inch Gladstone bag made of ox leather

A portmanteau is a piece of luggage, usually made of leather and opening into two equal parts. Some were large, upright, and hinged at the back and enabled hanging up clothes in one half,[1] while others are much smaller bags (such as Gladstone bags) with two equally sized compartments.[2] The word derives from the French word portemanteau (from porter, "to carry", and manteau, "coat"),[3][4] which nowadays means a coat rack but was in the past also used to refer to a traveling case or bag for clothes.[5][6]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/portmanteau
  2. ↑ "A History of Vintage Luggage". Retrieved January 16, 2014.
  3. ↑ http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/portmanteau
  4. ↑ http://www.answers.com/topic/portmanteau-new-word
  5. ↑ Petit Robert: portemanteau - "malle penderie" (suitcase in which clothes hang)
  6. ↑ "portemanteau" in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language)
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