portly

English

Etymology

From port +‎ -ly. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Which sense/etymology of ‘port’?”)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːtli/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔɹtli/, /ˈpoʊɹtli/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈpoːtliː/

Adjective

portly (comparative portlier, superlative portliest)

1. Somewhat fat, pudgy, overweight. [from 15th c.]
   • 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Introduction”, in Tales of a Traveller, part 1 (Strange Stories. […]), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC:

     Indeed, the poor man has grown ten times as nervous as ever, since he has discovered, on such good authority, who the stout gentleman was. . . . He has anxiously endeavored to call up a recollection of what he saw of that portly personage; and has ever since kept a curious eye on all gentlemen of more than ordinary dimensions.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 32, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 151:

     In the length he attains, and in his baleen, the Fin-back resembles the right whale, but is of a less portly girth, and a lighter colour, approaching to olive.

   • 1913, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 14, in The Little Nugget:

     His portly middle section, rising beyond like a small hill, heaved rhythmically.

   • 2011 July 6, Nick Carbone, “Top 10 Worst Fictional Camp Counselors”, in Time, retrieved 8 May 2014:

     In Heavyweights, Tony Perkis (Ben Stiller) is a fitness guru who installs himself as the über-buff leader of Camp Hope, with the goal of helping portly youngsters shed their saggy stomachs and thunder thighs.

2. (now rare) Having a dignified bearing; handsome, imposing. [from 15th c.]
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

     He ſends this Souldans daughter rich and braue,
     To be my Queene and portly Empereſſe, […]

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Portly his person was, and much increast
     Through his Heroicke grace and honourable gest.

   • 1728, Jonathan Swift, A Dialogue between Mad Mullinix and Timothy:

     Be studious well to imitate
     My portly motion, mien, and gait

Usage notes

• When used to refer to someone who is overweight, portly is a less harsh term than fat.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:obese

Derived terms

• portliness

Translations

euphemism for fat

• Bulgarian: пълен (bg) (pǎlen), едър (bg) (edǎr)
• Dutch: gezet (nl)
• French: fort (fr), corpulent (fr)
• German: korpulent (de), vollschlank (de), beleibt (de), stattlich (de), behäbig (de), würdevoll (de)
• Icelandic: gildur (is)
• Maori: takapū
• Plautdietsch: druglich
• Swedish: korpulent (sv), rundlagd (sv)

See also

• “portly”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• protyl, tropyl