portage
/ˈpɔː(ɹ)tɪd͡ʒ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.00 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An act of carrying, especially the carrying of a boat overland between two waterways.
Countable; Uncountable
name
A community in Cape Breton Regional Municipality, on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Example Sentences
- "gaining thereby the charge of portage; was a great benefit to them"
- "Onely the shippe that came thither payde a small thing according to her portage, aud euery yeere in the port of Orisa were laden fiue and twentie or thirtie ships great and smal with ryce and diuers sortes of fine white bumbaste cloth[…]"
- "Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; Let pry through the portage of the head Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it As fearfully as doth a galled rock O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean."
- "Two months have now elapsed since the work was first begun, viz: from the 20th of last December to the 20th instant, fully one month of which has been occupied in exploring, and the remainder in camping, portageing and measuring; […]"
- "You’d better leave it to him to decide whether it’s worth lumping a canoe along and portageing."
- "Those who haven’t experienced an overnight canoe trip can’t imagine the joys, tensions and learning packed into three days of canoeing, portageing, cooking meals in the open and sleeping under the stars."
Etymology
From Middle English portage, borrowed from Middle French portage, from Old French portage, from Early Medieval Latin portāticum. By surface analysis, port (“to carry”) + -age.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: portage, portāticum