Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A taxonomic genus within the family Portunidaeportunid crabs.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • He was called Portunus by the Romans, and believed to have jurisdiction of the ports and shores.

    The Age of Fable Thomas Bulfinch 1831

  • He was called Portunus by the Romans, and believed to have jurisdiction of the ports and shores.

    The Age of Fable Thomas Bulfinch 1831

  • He dispatched young Sositheus down to the old flower market in the Forum Boarium, in front of the Temple of Portunus, to buy a bouquet of fragrant summer blooms.

    Imperium Robert Harris 2006

  • He dispatched young Sositheus down to the old flower market in the Forum Boarium, in front of the Temple of Portunus, to buy a bouquet of fragrant summer blooms.

    Imperium Robert Harris 2006

  • He spoke, and far beneath the flood maiden Panopea heard him, with all Phorcus 'choir of Nereids, and lord Portunus with his own mighty hand pushed him on his way.

    The Aeneid of Virgil 70 BC-19 BC Virgil

  • Nereus, singing with tunes melodiously: Portunus with his bristled and rough beard, Salita with her bosome full of fish, Palemon the driver of the Dolphine, the Trumpetters of Tryton, leaping hither and thither, and blowing with heavenly noyse: such was the company which followed Venus, marching towards the ocean sea.

    The Golden Asse Lucius Apuleius

  • The Romans identified him with Portunus, the protector of harbours.

    The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' Compiled by Frank Sidgwick

  • Maybe some other seascape, like Thera, suggestive of broken altars; looking down into the cratered harbour he might have seen beneath the lapis lazuli waters, an ivory scimitar held in the gaze of Portunus, perfectly preserved, snapped in two.

    Unmanned Stephen Oliver

  • The _Portunalia_ of the 17th may have been another harvest-home, if we can believe the old authorities, who tell us that Portunus was a 'god of doors'

    The Religion of Ancient Rome Cyril Bailey 1914

  • We are struck, as we examine the list further, by the adjectival character of many of the names -- Neptunus, Portunus, Quirinus, Saturnus,

    The Religious Experience of the Roman People From the Earliest Times to the Age of Augustus W. Warde Fowler 1884

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