Portmanteau (luggage)

A portmanteau is a piece of luggage, usually made of leather and opening into two equal parts. Some are large, upright, and hinged at the back and enable 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") which nowadays means a coat rack but was in the past also used to refer to a traveling case or bag for clothes.^[3]^[4]

Portmanteau mail bag

Portmanteaux used to carry letters

In the 1700s, the term also described a mail bag.^[5] This continued into the 1800s for bags used by the United States Postal Service.^[6]^[7] An 1823 resolution in Congress further stated that "locks... will be placed on the portmanteaus containing the principal mails [which] can only be opened... at the distributing offices."^[8]

References

^ "Portmanteau definition and meaning - Collins English Dictionary". Collinsdictionary.com.
^ "A History of Vintage Luggage". Achome.co.uk. Retrieved January 16, 2014.
^ Petit Robert: portemanteau - "malle penderie" (suitcase in which clothes hang)
^ "PORTEMANTEAU : Définition de PORTEMANTEAU". Cnrtl.fr.
^ Chmara, Agnieszka (March 26, 2018). "Portmanteau". Eighteenth Century Lit.pbworks.com. Retrieved September 2, 2023. A 1726 dictionary defines a portmanteau as a Mail or a Cloak Bag...
^ Marsh, Allison. "US Postal Bag Prototype". National Postal Museum. Retrieved September 2, 2023. In the 19th century, both newspapers and letters were placed in a portmanteau, a round, side-opening, leather bag.
^ "Mail bag". Shaker Museum and Library. October 19, 2016. Retrieved September 2, 2023. This style of bag, sometimes called a portmanteau, was used by the Post Office Department in the mid-1800s to transport mail...
^ "Bulloch History with Roger Allen: Nation, Georgia set up Rural Free Delivery mail routes". Statesboro Herald. May 27, 2017. Retrieved September 2, 2023. It directed that here, All letters... are placed in a portmanteau [or] principal mail bag...

External links

Media related to Portmanteau (luggage) at Wikimedia Commons

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[1] "Portmanteau definition and meaning - Collins English Dictionary". Collinsdictionary.com.

[2] "A History of Vintage Luggage". Achome.co.uk. Retrieved January 16, 2014.

[3] Petit Robert: portemanteau - "malle penderie" (suitcase in which clothes hang)

[4] "PORTEMANTEAU : Définition de PORTEMANTEAU". Cnrtl.fr.

[5] Chmara, Agnieszka (March 26, 2018). "Portmanteau". Eighteenth Century Lit.pbworks.com. Retrieved September 2, 2023. A 1726 dictionary defines a portmanteau as a Mail or a Cloak Bag...

[6] Marsh, Allison. "US Postal Bag Prototype". National Postal Museum. Retrieved September 2, 2023. In the 19th century, both newspapers and letters were placed in a portmanteau, a round, side-opening, leather bag.

[7] "Mail bag". Shaker Museum and Library. October 19, 2016. Retrieved September 2, 2023. This style of bag, sometimes called a portmanteau, was used by the Post Office Department in the mid-1800s to transport mail...

[8] "Bulloch History with Roger Allen: Nation, Georgia set up Rural Free Delivery mail routes". Statesboro Herald. May 27, 2017. Retrieved September 2, 2023. It directed that here, All letters... are placed in a portmanteau [or] principal mail bag...

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