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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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A UK radio advertisement for men’s suits uses the word ‘portly’, not a commonly used word these days.
Portly ~ adjective: 1. slightly overweight
2. having an air of grandeur ( archaic )
15th century. Formed from port in the sense of “bearing, manner.”
The second meaning is new to me but perhaps explains why the word seems to be applied exclusively to men, since in the 15th Century I guess women were not considered capable of having an air of grandeur!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I've never heard women being referred to as portly even now dxb. Whenever I hear the word, a picture of a slightly weighty gentleman (not fat, just slightly weighty) with a mustache, and a pipe, pops into my head.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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My sense of the word "portly" is that it comments on body size without being negatively critical. I think it arose at a time when a certain amount of extra weight was a sign of prosperity and thus a good thing, not a politically-incorrect bad thing, like it is today.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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oh i thought this was a potent potables catagory! port or stout.. (ones a wine, ones a beer, but there is also porter, another kind of beer...)
excuse me, i suddenly realize i am thirsty.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hey, Helen, you're still thinking Jeopardy! 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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We could imagine portly women if the descriptions had been set up for us, say in a literary passages. I won't aspire to that high level. Briefly, however, if you imagine a very large woman with finishing school posture, impeccably groomed in very expensive business dress--a thousand-dollar-suit and three times that in accessories--she'd be well on her way toward being considered portly. Throw in a deep alto-toned voice, an air of dignity, a soupcon of middle-agedness (lord, I need a synonym for middle-agedness!), and, voila!, you've got a portly woman!
*Excuse my not looking for French accents. I'm a horrible laze in that regard.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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women, well certain women, never become middle aged, they become women of a certain age, and are often so described in the NY Times.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yeah, and we don't sweat, either: we glow.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks for supplying the synonym, of troy.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Land of Kentucky again, Jackie: And would you say stallions sweat and mares glow?  (I think all horses glow, but that's irrelevant here...)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, there's a hunch play if I ever saw one.
If I see a race horse with the word "Glow" as part of the name I am plunking down my cash across the board (win, place or show) on that pony!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I got the horse right here, her name is "Glow", my dear,
And there's a guy that says if the weather's clear:
No sweat, no sweat, this guy says the horse don't sweat.
If he says the horse don't sweat -- no sweat, no sweat.
duck
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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We had auditions for Guys and Dolls this past week, AnnaS! You just missed the final cut. Drat. Can't do.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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hope you found a fewgood tinhorns, ww...
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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a fewgood tinhorns
Now that one was good.
Y'all quit while you're ahead.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Fewgood is about the oddest misspelling I've ever seen in this life.
et': We had terrific males auditioning, but few sounded like true (or stereotypical in any way) New Yorkers. The guys sounded more operatic.
All the girls glowed. Very tense competition there with so few speaking parts and solos for them.
AnnaS: I loved your poetic riff!
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old hand
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old hand
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Thinking of a feminine pendant for "portly", the word "matronly" comes to my mind.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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There are a few words that come near it - matronly, as you suggest, is one, but the only one I can think of that includes the element of being somewhat overweight in its definition is rubenesque. I'm not sure if that's a "real" word even. Perhaps jheem can tell us. jheem?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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It is a real word but rubenesque is fatter than portly.
I've never pictured a matronly person with very expensive suites or deep-voiced. Matronly sound more motherly but with a bit of extra padding and boobily endowed.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Weeell, is it fatter than portly? I hear how their redefining the clothing sizes because women are getting bigger. So a UK size 12 will become what would have been considered a size 14 and so on...so a Rubenesque woman will reduce down a size so that she is only portly (or matronly maybe - but that suggests 'a certain age' as someone said). If you can't manage to lose weight, redefine the problem!
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veteran
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veteran
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but the only one I can think of that includes the element of being somewhat overweight in its definition is rubenesque.
Rubenesque has as much of a right to wordhood as zaftig. Problem, for me, with matronly is that the word emphasizes the motherly or widows weeds: the state of pomp, not plump. Similar in fact to portly which seems to have been tied between stoutness and stateliness ... And how does one describe those chubby little putti that one sees in so much baroque art? Another word that comes to mind, in its etymological rather than its English meaning, is avoirdupois 'having some pounds'. While a zaftig woman can have an ample bosom, we wouldn't say that she herself, synecdochically, was amble, and in our saying it be kind in intent.
Good question, dxb. Perhaps somebody else has plumbed the plump and weighed the weighty.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Rubenesque suggests to me, also, many pounds overweight. Matronly sounds as though it could cover fat, as belm' suggests, and even medium-sized women. I can imagine a skinny, matronly woman, too. Correct me if you think that matronly women categorically cannot be skinny.
But portly implies some degree of dignity--and I can't limit that adjective to men. My imagination easily configures a roomful of portly women, none of them necessarily matronly, but many of them Rubenesque behind the curtains, so to speak.
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veteran
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veteran
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I don't have quite the same idea of these 3 words as some of you.
To me, rubensesque (as I write it) denotes well-endowed and welll-upholstered women (if you look at a Rubens painting you get the idea) but no so much so as "portly" or "stout". In my vocabulary, "stout" is a euphemism for plain old fat, or obese (but not excessivly so), and was so used by my grandmother who was herself stout. I would not apply "portly" to a woman. To me, "portly" is applied to a man who is stout but also big in general with an impressive carriage, like J.P. Morgan or King Eddie 7, but not to the point of looking like W.H. Taft.
In my view, and as I use it, "matronly" does not necessarily have anything to do with size, although most matronly women are bigger than average. It has to do with age, also. A young woman who looks matronly is indeed a sorry sight. A perfect example is Queen Lizzie Twoth. She's not fat, nor ancient, but her clothes, carriage, & general stiffness of affect is what makes her matronly in my view. The greatest example I have ever seen was the mother of a friend of mine, who was in her 50s, somewhat heavy but not excessively, always very conservatively dressed in long dresses and carefully corseted, old-fashioned piled-up hairdo and a very dignified carriage. When she walked into a room it was like the Queen Mary coming into the dock.
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journeyman
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journeyman
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Wouldn't that woman be 'stately'?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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She could be stately, but a woman could be tall, thin and stately. However, a portly woman would be hefty as a prerequisite to her possible stateliness. If she hugs people and hands them freshly made pumpkin muffins from her attache case as she grandly parades by at her finest galleon-styled pace, then maybe she's matronly, too.
[*The above was just a little kidding. I am NOT being serious here.]
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Carpal Tunnel
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If she hugs people and hands them freshly made pumpkin muffins from her attache case as she grandly parades by at her finest galleon-styled pace, then maybe she's matronly, too.
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addict
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addict
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voila!, you've got a portly woman!A woman can't be "portly", Wordwind, because she buttons her shirt on the starboard side. On the other hand, some women 'dock' more than simply 'arrive'.
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