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, 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, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], →OCLC:

     Man's portion is to die and rise again.

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, 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, Luke 15:12, column 1:

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

   • 1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:

     O! yearning heart! I did inherit
     Thy withering portion with the fame,
     The searing glory which hath shone
     Amid the jewels of my throne,
     Halo of Hell!

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, Act V, scene iv, page 85:

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

   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):

     I took part of a small house in the Old Jewry; and being advised to alter my condition, I married Mrs. Mary Burton, second daughter to Mr. Edmund Burton, hosier, in Newgate-street, with whom I received four hundred pounds for a portion.

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

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, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “portion”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Borrowed from Latin portionem (accusative singular of portio).

• IPA^(key): /pɔʁ.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

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

• Audio

  (file)

portion c

1. serving, an helping of food

• portionera

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

• IPA^(key): /pɔːˈʃuːn/

portion

1. part
   • 1867, “THE BRIDE'S PORTION”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 102:

     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 (d. 1827) (before 1828) 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, published 1867, page 102
• https://web.archive.org/web/20050222031415/http://homepage.tinet.ie/~taghmon/histsoc/vol3/chapter4/chapter4.htm