Dictionary

portass en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈpɔː(ɹ)təs/

Etymology

From Middle English porthors, from Old French porte-hors (“a kind of portable prayer-book”).

Meanings

1. (Early, Modern, obsolete) A breviary; a prayer book.
   • Their portases, bedes, temples, aultars. 1545, John Bale, The Image of Both Churches:
   • In his hand his portesse still he bare, That much was worn, but therein little red; For of devotion he had little care. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
   • Boner hath set up again in Paules Salesburi Latin portace. 1553, [unknown translator], Stephen Gardiner, De vera obedientia:
   • an old Priest in that age, which always read in his Portass, Mumpsimus Domine for Sumpsimus; whereof when he was admonished, he said that he now had used Mumpsimus thirty years, and would not leave his old Mumpsimus for their new Sumpsimus. 1605, M. N. [pseudonym; William Camden], Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine, […], London: […] G[eorge] E[ld] for Simon Waterson, →OCLC:
   • Let me see your portous, gentle sir John. 1565, Robert Wever, An Enterlude called lusty Juventus:

Forms