Porto Rico
- proper noun
- /ˈpɔrtoʊ ˈriːkoʊ/
- Archaic
:
Puerto Rico
- In old documents, Porto Rico is frequently used instead of the modern 'Puerto Rico'.
Examples
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The hurricane caused widespread damage across Porto Rico in the early 20th century.
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Trade between the United States and Porto Rico increased dramatically after 1898.
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In old documents, Porto Rico is frequently used instead of the modern 'Puerto Rico'.
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I visited Porto Rico last summer.
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Have you ever been to Porto Rico?
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Trade between the United States and Porto Rico increased dramatically after 1898.
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The hurricane caused widespread damage across Porto Rico in the early 20th century.
Synonyms
5
1.6
An island in the Caribbean that belongs to the United States
A self-governing area linked to the United States on the island of Puerto Rico
Surface Forms
Morphology
Porto + Rico
This is an archaic spelling of the place name Puerto Rico; its parts correspond to Romance-language words meaning roughly 'port' and 'rich', so a learner who knew those constituents might guess it refers to a place (and get a literal sense like 'rich port'). However the expression functions as a fixed proper name for a specific island and the orthographic/etymological mapping is not a standard English compositional pattern, so the exact referent and conventional name are not fully predictable from the parts.
Etymology
Porto Rico comes from the island's Spanish name 'Puerto Rico', which means 'rich port'. The parts of the name are Porto, meaning 'port', and Rico, meaning 'rich', and English writers long ago often used Porto instead of 'Puerto', so older books and laws said Porto Rico, but today we use 'Puerto Rico'.