portion

From Middle English porcioun, borrowed from Old French porcion, from Latin portio (“a share, part, portion, relation, proportion”), akin to pars (“part”); see part. Compare proportion.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔɹʃən/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːʃən/
• (Scotland, Ireland, other varieties without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ˈpoəɹʃən/, /ˈpoːɹʃən/, /ˈpoɹʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)ʃən

portion (plural portions)

1. An allocated amount.
2. That which is divided off or separated, as a part from a whole; a separated part of anything.
3. One's fate; lot.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Luke 12:46, columns 2–1:

     The Lord of that ſeruant […] will appoint him his portion with the vnbeleeuers.

   • 1827, [John Keble], The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], OCLC 1029642537:

     Man's portion is to die and rise again.

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), OCLC 630079698, page 146:

     "Everywhere the same!" exclaimed Francesca, as she resumed her seat—"the same human misery—the same human portion!...

4. The part of an estate given or falling to a child or heir; an inheritance.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Luke 15:12, column 1:

     Father, giue me the portion of goods that falleth to me.

5. A wife's fortune; a dowry.
   • 1613–1614 (date written), John Fletcher; William Shak[e]speare, The Two Noble Kinsmen: […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Waterson; […], published 1634, OCLC 1170464517, Act V, scene iv, page 85:

     Commend me to her, and to piece her portion / Tender her this.

Relatively formal, compared to the more informal part or more concrete and casual piece. For example, “part of the money” (both informal) but “portion of the proceeds” (both formal).

• part
• piece

• portionless
• proportion
• underportion

portion (third-person singular simple present portions, present participle portioning, simple past and past participle portioned)

1. (transitive) To divide into amounts, as for allocation to specific purposes.
2. (transitive) To endow with a portion or inheritance.
   • 1733, Alexander Pope, Epistle to Bathurst

     Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans, blest.

• Particularly used as portion out.
• Relatively formal, compared to the more informal divide, divide up, or the casual divvy, divvy up.

• apportion
• divide, divide up
• divvy, divvy up

• portion off
• portion out

• portion in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• portion in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

Borrowed from Latin portionem (accusative singular of portio).

• IPA^(key): /pɔʁ.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

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portion f (plural portions)

1. portion

• portion congrue

• → Turkish: porsiyon

• “portion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• potiron

portion (plural portiones)

1. portion

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portion c

1. serving, an helping of food

• portionera

From Middle English porcioun, from Old French porcion, from Latin portio.

portion

1. part
   • 1867, “THE BRIDE'S PORTION”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:

     A portion ich gae her, was (it's now ich have ee-tolth)

     The portion I gave her was (it's now I have told)

2. dowry
   • 2005, Brief List of Familiar Things:

     A portion ich gae her was keow an dwanty shilleen.

     The dowry I gave her was a cow and twenty shillings.

• Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 102
• https://web.archive.org/web/20050222031415/http://homepage.tinet.ie/~taghmon/histsoc/vol3/chapter4/chapter4.htm