portas, -eous, -es, -ess, -hos Now only Hist.
Forms: (3–4 portehors), 4–5 porthors, -hous, -os, 4–9 -ous, -hos, -oos, 5 -oce, -oes, -ose, -ues, -eux (?), poortos, Sc. porteus, -owis, -wis, 5–6 -as, -es, -us, Sc. -uus, -eouss, 5–9 -uous, 6 -ais, -eise, -eyse, -ew(a)s, -is, -oues, -uos, -uess, -uys, -yes, 6–7 -ass(e, -ess(e, -oose, -uouse, -use, 6–7 -house, 6–8 -uass, -uis, 6–9 Sc. -eous, 7 -ise, -ius, -uise. β. erron. 5 portor, pl. -eres.
[ME. (portehors) porthors, a. OF. portehors, 13th c. (= med.L. portiforium, 13th c. in Du Cange) a portable breviary, f. porte, imperative of porter to carry (see port v.1) + hors:—L. foris out of doors, abroad.]
1. A portable breviary in the mediæval church.
| [1249–52 in Camden Misc. (1895) IX. 23 Item liber porte⁓hors, qui est Vicarij. c 1250 Newminster Cartul. (1878) 273 Unum portehors.] 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 122 A portous þat shulde be his plow, placebo to segge. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 194 Newe costy portos, antifeners, graielis, & alle oþere bokis. c 1386 Chaucer Shipman's T. 135 By god and by this Porthors [v.rr. portoos, portos] I yow swere. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 604/19 Portoforium, a Porthos. 14.. Nom. ibid. 719/31 Hoc portiferium, a portas. 1426 in E.E. Wills (1882) 76 My masseboke, my portus. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 410/1 Poortos, booke, portiforium, breviarium. 1459 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) II. 227 A Graile, a Manuell, a litel Portose, the which the saide Sir Thomas toke w{supt} him alway when he rode. 1460 Edw. (IV) as Earl of March in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. I. 10 Beseching your good lordeschip to remembre our porteux. c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 755/19 Hoc portiforium, a portes. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 427/1 [He] bare euer with hym the byble & his breuyary or portoes. 1507 Pilton Churchw. Acc. (Som. Rec. Soc.) 52 A grett portuos of prynte. 1519 in 5th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. 555/2 A lytelle Portewas, called our Lady Portewas. 1528 Tindale Obed. Chr. Man 71 b, That know no moare scripture then is written in their portoues. 1530 Palsgr. 257/1 Portyes, a preestes boke, breuiayre. 1533 Lanc. Wills (1857) II. 13 My ij portews. 1533 More Apol. iii. Wks. 848/1 In stede of a long portuous, a shorte primer shall serue them. 1534 ― Comf. agst. Trib. i. xv. (1573) 31 b, No such praiers are put in the Priestes Portesse, as far as I can heare. 1549 Act 3 & 4 Edw. VI, c. 10 §1 All Bookes called..Manuelles Legends Pyes Portuyses Prymars..shalbe..abollished. a 1550 Pore Helpe 102 in Hazl. E.P.P. III. 256 And also the Paraphrasies, Moche dyfferyng from your portaises, They wolde haue dayly vsed. 1550 Bale Image Both Ch. i. Pref. A viij, Their babling praiers their portases, bedes, temples [etc.]. 1570 T. Wilson Demosthenes Ded. 3 There was never Olde Priest more perfite in his Porteise. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 77 As the doting papists did their blasphemous masses out of their portesses. a 1604 Hanmer Chron. Irel. (1633) 130 Laurence the Archbishop (whom it had beseemed better to have beene at home with his porthouse). 1611 Bible Transl. Pref. 9 Their Seruice bookes, Portesses, and Breuiaries. 1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Vind. Answ. v. 66 The Liturgie is never the worse, because the words of it are taken out of the Roman Portuise. 1711 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) III. 175 Breviarie or portuass for the Quire. 1817 Scott Border Antiq. II. Introd. 82 A monk from Melrose, called, from the porteous or breviary which he wore in his breast, a book-a-bosom. 1846 W. Maskell Mon. Rit. I. p. lxxxvii, The Portiforium, with its various English names of..Portuis, Portuasse, Porthoos, and Portfory. 1890 St. John Hope in Archæologia LII. 706 A subject derived from the York porthos. |
| β 1465 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 284 A portor [? -os] of Salusbury use. 1500 in Gentl. Mag. Dec. (1837) 571/2, ij porteres, off the gefte off Syr Ryc. Long. |
b. transf. A manual (
of some subject).
| 1508 Twelve Virtues of ane Nobleman ad fin. (Jam.), Heir ends the Porteous of Noblenes. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. ii. iv. i. (1651) 539 Their whole books are a Synopsis or breviary of Love, the portuous of Love, Legends of Lovers lives and deaths. |
c. attrib.| 1458 Yatton Churchw. Acc. (Som. Rec. Soc.) 100 For byndyng ij portoce bokys. 1549 Chaloner tr. Erasm. on Folly P iij b, As long as they mumble ouer theyr portes seruice. 1550 Bale Eng. Votaries ii. L iij, The order of portasse men. |
2. Sc. Law. (In later use
porteous roll.) ‘A roll of the names of offenders, which, by the old practice of the Justiciary Court, was prepared by the Justice-Clerk from the informations of crimes furnished..by the local authorities’ (W. Bell
Dict. Law Scotl.).
| 1436 Sc. Acts Jas. I (1814) II. 23/2 It is..ordanit, þat al crownaris sal arrest..all þaim þat salbe gevin hym in portuis be þe Justice clerk, & nane vthir. c 1470 Henryson Tale of Dog 128 Quhilk hes ane porteouss of the indytement. 1582 Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 491 The porteous and rollis of the last justice air..wes deliverit..to be execute. 1708 Royal Proclam. 11 July in Lond. Gaz. No. 4456/1 That Porteous Rolls be orderly and in due time taken up, conform to the Law and Custom in such cases. 1752 J. Louthian Form of Process 230 Form of the Porteous Rolls. Names of the Criminals and their Designations... Names and Designations of the Witnesses... Indictment. 1872 C. Innes Lect. Scott. Legal Antiq. 301 The Raven is like a false crowner who has a porteous of the indictment. 1883 Omond Ld. Advocates Scot. I. 287. |
Hence
† ˈportas,
portess,
v. (
Obs. nonce-wd.),
trans. to include among the saints named in the breviary; to canonize.
| 1570 Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) 1217/1 After an hundreth yeares expired, they shal also be shryned and portessed, dying as they did in that quarell of the Church of Rome. |