Aportmanteau is a piece ofluggage, 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 asGladstone bags) with two equally sized compartments.[2]
The word derives from theFrench wordportemanteau (fromporter, "to carry", andmanteau, "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]
In the 1700s, the term also described a mail bag.[5] This continued into the 1800s for bags used by theUnited 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]
A 1726 dictionary defines a portmanteau as a Mail or a Cloak Bag...
In the 19th century, both newspapers and letters were placed in a portmanteau, a round, side-opening, leather bag.
This style of bag, sometimes called a portmanteau, was used by the Post Office Department in the mid-1800s to transport mail...
It directed that here, All letters... are placed in a portmanteau [or] principal mail bag...
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