baggage
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: băg'ĭj
ipa: /ˈbæɡɪd͡ʒ/
rhymes: -æɡɪdʒ
Forms: form: baggages
Etymology: From Middle English bagage, from Old French bagage, baguage, from bague (“bundle, sack”), of Germanic/North Germanic origin, probably from the same ultimate source as Old Norse baggi (“pack, bundle”). Compare also bag. By surface analysis, bag + -age.
Senses: examples: text: Please put your baggage in the trunk.
text: As soon as they had determined on their course, Ya-nei slid under the bed, and made himself a place among the baggages.
ref: 1929, Charles Georges Souli, Eastern Shame Girl:
text: Needless to say, one's seat must be booked in advance and a platoon of urbane officials, one to each door of the train, awaits passengers to usher them to their seats and relieve them of their bulkier baggage.
ref: 1960 March, G. Freeman Allen, “Europe's most luxurious express - the "Settebello"”, in Trains Illustrated, page 140:
text: Alone, she clings to her baggages on the street.
ref: 1991 September 20, Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Love Films: A Cassavetes Retrospective”, in Chicago Reader:
text: The audacious hijacking in Paris of a van carrying the baggage of a Saudi prince to his private jet is obviously an embarrassment to the French capital, whose ultra-high-end boutiques have suffered a spate of heists in recent months.
ref: 2014 August 21, “A brazen heist in Paris [print version: International New York Times, 22 August 2014, p. 8]”, in The New York Times:
text: Uncountable synonyms: luggage; gear; stuff
text: Countable synonyms: bags; suitcases
glosses: Portable cases, large bags, and similar equipment for manually carrying, pushing, or pulling personal items while traveling
examples: text: This person has got a lot of emotional baggage.
text: […]How much shall I honour one, who has a stronger propensity to poetry, and has got a greater name in it, if he performs his promise to me of putting away these idle baggages after his sacred espousal.
ref: 1846, Henry Francis Cary, Lives of the English Poets:
text: Flynn was so flawed, team Trump was repeatedly warned about his baggage by both then acting AG Sally Yates and President Obama, and even as reported this week, General Flynn himself! But Trump kept standing by him anyway, which kind of makes sense in a way, because literally every decision in the Trump administration is the worst possible one. “Paper or plastic? Whichever one kills the most birds!” “Soup or salad? I’m gonna go with the n-word!” “Favorite Beatle? It’s got to be Yoko!”
ref: 2017 May 21, “Stupid Watergate”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 13, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:
text: "For myself, because of the baggage of 30 years of balkanisation, I think the elegant solution is to take operations back into the public sector. It will mean you can have a whole-industry approach to running the railway, unencumbered by contractual differences."
ref: 2025 February 19, Paul Clifton, “I am absolutely committed to reforming the railway”, in RAIL, number 1029, page 41:
glosses: Factors, especially psychological ones, which interfere with a person's ability to function effectively.
examples: text: Betty and Molly (they were soft-hearted baggages) felt for their master--pitied their poor master!
ref: 1828, Various, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, No. 288:
text: But he had a roving eye and a joyous temperament; and though he loved me better than any of the baggages to whom he paid court, he would not visit me so often as he should.
ref: 1897, Charles Whibley, A Book of Scoundrels:
text: But your perverse attempts to wring blushes from little baggages in convenient corners outrage my love of Love!
ref: 1910, Gertrude Hall, Chantecler:
text: However, terrible as it may seem to the tall maiden sisters of J.P.'s in Queen Anne houses with walled vegetable gardens, this courtesan, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie, street-walker, this trollop, this trull, this baggage, this hussy, this drab, skit, rig, quean, mopsy, demirep, demimondaine, this wanton, this fornicatress, this doxy, this concubine, this frail sister, this poor Queenie--did actually solicit me, did actually say 'coming home to-night, dearie' and my soul was not blasted enough to call a policeman.
ref: 1936, Anthony Bertram, Like the Phoenix:
text: Shall we ask this baggage to sit down or shall we just throw her out of the window?
ref: 1964: My Fair Lady (film)
glosses: A woman. Romeo and Juliet, 3.5. Lord Capulet to his daughter, Juliet. "Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch! I tell thee what: get thee to church o’ Thursday, Or never after look me in the face. Speak not; reply not; do not answer me."
examples: text: Friedrich decides to go down the River; he himself to Lowen, perhaps near twenty miles farther down, but where there is a Bridge and Highway leading over; Prince Leopold, with the heavier divisions and baggages, to Michelau, some miles nearer, and there to build his Pontoons and cross.
ref: 1865, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia:
text: In Poland, for example, the unknown Bolesław Bierut, who appeared in 1944 in the baggage of the Red Army, and who played a prominent role as a ‘non-party figure’ in the Lublin Committee, turned out to be a Soviet employee formerly working for the Comintern.
ref: 2007, Norman Davies, No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939–1945, New York: Penguin, page 305:
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: An army's portable equipment; its baggage train.
Derived terms: bag and baggage
baggage agent
baggage car
baggage carousel
baggage cart
baggage check
baggage claim
baggage handler
baggage hold
baggageless
baggageman
baggagemaster
baggager
baggage reclaim
baggage scanner
baggage-smasher
baggage train
baggage van
blind baggage
carry-on baggage
checked baggage
excess baggage
hold baggage
overhead baggage compartment
oversized baggage
way-baggage