or portmantick, portmantua, subs. (once literary: now vulgar).A corruption of portmanteau.
[?] Robin Hood and the Butcher [CHILD, Ballads, v. 38], l. 115.
And out of the sheriffs PORTMANTLE | |
He told three hundred pound. |
161730. HOWELL, Familiar Letters, 127 [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, ii. 79. Buckingham, in his Spanish journey carries a PORTMANTLE under his arm; our form of the word was to come seven years later.]
1623. MABBE, The Spanish Rogue (1630) 158 [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, ii. 86. We see PORTMANTEAU in page 158, and the form PORTMANTUA in the Index; our mantua-maker is a relic of this confusion].
1692. J. HACKET, Life of Archbishop Williams, i. 160. He would linger no longer, and play at cards in King Philips palace till the messenger with the PORT-MANTICK came from Rome.
1726. VANBRUGH, The Provoked Husband, i. 1. My ladys gear alone were as much as filled four PORTMANTEL trunks.
1753. CHARLOTTE LENNOX, Henrietta, v. x. He sent orders to a servant to bring his PORTMANTUA.