Portagee
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Variant of Portuguese, or perhaps back-formation from Portuguese taking it as a plural.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈpɔɹtəɡi/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈpɔːtəɡi/
- Hyphenation: Por‧ta‧gee
Noun
[edit]Portagee (plural Portagees)
- (dated, ethnic slur, derogatory) A person from Portugal or a person of Portuguese descent.
- 1993, Common Lives, Lesbian Lives- Issues 47-49, page 37:
- She lives in New Bedford, and her dad's not around much and her mum calls her boyfriend a Portagee, a fuckin' greenhorn, and she says, Ma, he's 3rd generation, but her mum just rolls her eyes and fixes a drink, fills her glass with ice from the icemaker they have, pours some bourbon from the bottle on the glass-and-mirror shelf above the sink, turns on one of the gold seahorse faucets just a swoosh, and goes into the living room with the paper.
- 1935, John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat, →ISBN:
- The Portagee sighed happily. He was home again.
- 2002, Lanai Tabura, Augusto E. Tulba, Lanai and Angies Joke of the Day, →ISBN, page 40:
- What did the Portagee say when he opened a box of Cheerios? "Look, a box of doughnut seeds!"
- 2005, John A. Broussard, Death and Near Death: A Yoshinobu Mystery, →ISBN, page 121:
- “You damn, dumb Portagee,” he was saying, “How could you have fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book?
Adjective
[edit]Portagee (comparative more Portagee, superlative most Portagee)
- (dated, derogatory, ethnic slur) Portuguese.
- 2006, Jerry Hopkins, The Da Lima Code, →ISBN, page 49:
- Did you hear about the man who was half Portagee and half Italian? He made himself an offer he couldn't understand.
- 2008, Mary Frosch, Coming of Age in the 21st Century: Growing Up in America Today:
- Melvin has a very Portagee accent.
- 2013, Joseph A. Conforti, Another City Upon a Hill: A New England Memoir, →ISBN:
- The religious shrines that sprouted in front yards across St. Anthony's parish were too Portagee or greenhornish for my mother.