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🛶 Carrying boats 🛶 To carry overland 🛤️ Overland path 💰 Carrying cost
portage

portage

1 8.2
A land route between rivers or lakes for carrying boats and supplies
  • noun
  • /ˈpɔːrtɪdʒ/
translation icon : sendero de porteo
  • Looking at the Boundary Waters maps, you'll see portages between 10 and 550 (ouch).
  • a portage trail
  • a portage between rivers
  • a short portage

Examples

  • The portages range from a nice, smooth path to a bushwhack through mud, rocks, roots, and combinations thereof.

    Blog text (13)

  • More than a thousand lakes connected by portages, canals, and rivers are shaping our devotion.

    Academic text (2005)

  • "In the last few years, the boys went with him through the portages to carry gas to the boats on the back lakes.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • The group camped by the portage at Site Zed on the first evening, with plans to hike around the river.

    Blog text (7)

  • Portages are measured by an old surveying measurement called rods.

    Blog text (13)

  • But once over the river, the balance tilted toward portage, and Lucille's suspension straps ("the finest Hungary leather!") began to groan under the weight of the boxes and barrels.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • To travel from lake to lake, or river or bog, one should be ready for crossing portages (stretches of land between waterways) carrying the canoe, usually upside down on one's shoulders.

    Academic text (2005)

  • During our canoe trip, we had to carry our gear along the portage between the two lakes.

  • The portage was well-marked, making it easy for us to navigate the trails between the rivers.

  • After a long day of paddling, we finally arrived at the portage that connects the two streams.

Synonyms

route
vsportage
∞ 1.0

A road or path people use to travel between places

is a specific land track between two waterways for carrying boats and supplies

Surface Forms

portage singular
portages plural

Morphology

portage = port (opaque) = port + age

The form reflects historical 'port' + '-age', but the modern sense of an overland route between waters is a specialized metonymic extension that is not predictable from the parts.

Etymology

Portage comes from French porter and Latin portare, which mean 'to carry'. That is why a portage can mean the route or track used to carry boats from one water to another, because it is the place for carrying.