A “porter” and a “porter” are two very different persons, as the terms
are employed in both Europe and America. We speak of a porter as a
menial who carries burdens, such as parcels or baggage, a mere carrier
for hire. Again, we speak of a porter as the attendant at, or the
custodian of, the entrance gate of a mansion or public building. In the
one case the porter is a very humble personage, in the other case he is
a person of responsibility and importance. How it came about that the
same term is applied to both these personages is worth considering, in
view of its bearing on the importance of the door and the gate.
It is said to have been a custom of the ancient Etruscans and Romans,
and perhaps of older peoples, in laying out the foundations of a city,
to mark first the compass of the whole city with a plow. When they came
to those places where they were to have the gates of the city, they took
up the plow and carried it across the gateway, “transported” the plow at
that space. It is said that from this custom the Latin word _porta_ came
to apply to “a gate,” “_a portando aratrum_,” “from carrying the
plow,”–_porta_, in Latin, meaning “to carry.” Whether or not the
traditional custom referred to had a historical basis, it will be seen
that the mere fact of the tradition will account for the twofold use, in
languages derived from the Latin, of the word “porter” as a carrier, and
again as a doorkeeper, or a gate watcher, or a guardian of the
threshold. Apart from the question of the origin of the terms, we find
that the porter or carrier is one who goes through the gate as the place
of entrance or exit in his carryings; or, again, the porter or guardian
of the gate is one who watches the place of carryings, and of outgoing
and incoming.
Among the stories told of the founding of Rome by Romulus, it is said
that at the threshold of this enterprise the people kindled fires before
their tents, and then leaped through or over the flames.[697] In
connection with this ceremony sacrifices were offered, and offerings of
the first-fruits of forest and field were made to the gods.[698] A
heifer and a bull were yoked to the plow, as in symbol of marriage, and
afterwards were offered in sacrifice, thus supplying the symbolic blood
on the threshold of the new city.[699] Plutarch, it is true, thinks
that, in consequence of this custom of laying out a city, the walls of a
city, _except the gates_, were counted sacred; but in this, as in other
matters relating to the threshold,[700] it is evident that Plutarch was
not sure to be correct as to the meaning of archaic customs.
There seems to be force in the suggestion that the two Latin words,
_porta_ and _porto_, like the Greek _poros_, were derived from the
common Aryan root _par_ or _por_, “to go,” “to bring over,” “to pass
through.”[701] However this may be, we have the common English use of
the term “port” in words meaning a door or entrance, and again a
carrying or a place of carriage, as “export,” “import,” “transport,”
“portico,” “porthole,” “portfolio,” etc.
An illustration of the twofold use of the word is found in the word “a
portage” or “a carry” as the designation of “a break in a chain of water
communication over which goods, boats, etc., have to be carried, as from
one lake or river to another.” It is not merely that this is a place
where a canoe, or other luggage, must be carried, but it is the definite
“carry” or “portage,” the bridge, or isthmus, or door, or
threshold,[702] by which they enter another region. This is the common
American use of the term in pioneer life.[703]
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Footnote 697:
A primitive wedding ceremony. See pp. 39–42, 142 f., 212, _supra_.
Footnote 698:
See, again, pp. 16 f., 46 f., _supra_.
Footnote 699:
See _Plutarch’s Lives_, “Romulus;” also references to Strabo, and
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in Hooke’s _Roman History_, I., 42.
Footnote 700:
See references at pp. 39, 263, _supra_.
Footnote 701:
See Skeat’s _Etymological Dictionary_ and the _Century Dictionary_, s.
v.
Footnote 702:
See p. 180 f., _supra_.
Footnote 703:
See “portage” in _The Century Dictionary_, with examples of usage.
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