Portmanteau Meaning in Context – 601 Words

Portmanteau meaning and synonyms in real context with images as a French word in English from the book, 601 Words You Need to Know to Pass Your Exam. Improve your listening and reading comprehension in real context with the word, portmanteau.

/pɔːtˈmæn.təʊ/ (adj & noun)

Portmanteau meaning

Noun: a large case for carrying clothes especially in the past while traveling that opens out into two parts, large suitcase, a large traveling bag made of stiff leather

Adjective: consisting of a wide array of items but regarded as a whole, multiple, combination, hybrid, blended

Example

When Phileas Fogg decides to circle the globe in Around the World in 80 Days, the 1873 novel by Jules Verne, he doesn’t take a portmanteau. “We’ll have no trunks,” he says to his servant Passepartout, “only a carpet bag, with two shirts and three pairs of stockings for me, and the same for you. We’ll buy our clothes on the way.”

At the time, the suitcase as we know it today hardly existed. In Verne’s day, proper travel required a hefty trunk built of wood, leather, and often a heavy iron base. The best trunks were waterproofed with canvas or tree sap, as steamships were a reigning mode of travel. Without this protection, a suitcase in the hold of a heaving, leaky ship would probably have been wet within a few hours, and crushed by sliding trunks within a few more.

Source of example: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/