Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A leather or fur pouch worn at the front of the kilt in the traditional dress of men of the Scottish Highlands.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Highland costume, the purse hanging down from the belt in front of the kilt.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A large purse or pouch made of skin with the hair or fur on, worn in front of the kilt by Highlanders when in full dress.

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

  • noun A small pouch, usually made of either fur or plain or fur-trimmed leather, which is worn, suspended from a belt or chain, on the front of a kilt and used to hold various items normally carried in pants pockets.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a fur or leather pouch worn at the front of the kilt as part of the traditional dress of Scottish Highlanders

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Scottish Gaelic sporan, from Middle Irish sparán, possibly from Late Latin bursa, bag; see bursa.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Scottish Gaelic sporan ("purse"), from Old Irish sboran, from Late Latin bursa ("purse").

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Examples

  • The sporran is a kind of belt purse, Shari explained.

    The Lancaster Men Janet Dailey 1984

  • The sporran is a kind of belt purse, Shari explained.

    The Lancaster Men Janet Dailey 1984

  • The sporran is a kind of belt purse, Shari explained.

    The Lancaster Men Janet Dailey 1984

  • The sporran is a kind of belt purse, Shari explained.

    The Lancaster Men Janet Dailey 1984

  • That "sporran" was really a kind of movable curtain or screen; and beneath it, Bowman was quite sure, would be the mouth, handily placed at the entrance to the stomach.

    Tin 2010

  • Too bad it replaced the already existing "sporran", which describes exactly the same kind of thing.

    languagehat.com: PSEUDOENGLISCH. 2005

  • Clothing was generally confined to a kind of sporran, elaborately patterned with symbols, to leave glands and mahogany fur available for signals.

    The Earth Book of Stormgate Anderson, Poul, 1926-2001 1978

  • A stark-naked savage this, and devoid of all adornment excepting a waist-belt of plaited grass and a "sporran" of similar material.

    Spinifex and Sand David Wynford Carnegie 1885

  • We are going to have to dig way down deep in the sporran to replace it.

    Three Cheers for Mrs Beamish John 2009

  • When Baker met the king of Buganda, he appeared in full Highland dress: kilt, sporran and Glengarry bonnet all complete in the heart of Africa.

    To the Source Judith Flanders 2011

Comments

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  • How could a true Scotsman not include this?

    January 18, 2007

  • How could a true Scotsman not include this?

    January 18, 2007

  • You can build one here.

    December 8, 2008

  • Yikes. I just made a pink sporran. =:-O

    December 9, 2008

  • I won't tell you what happened when I was corralled into the Skunk Full Mask Sporran option.

    *sulks*

    December 9, 2008

  • Sam had already profited handsomely from the public's esurient craving for fresh Tickle-Me-Elmo paraphernalia, when he figured out a clever way of making "Elmo sampans" by deft evagination of old sporrans, and his market research team was already investigating potential demand for a series of "Elmo's Everest adventures" manufactured, using the best faux-samizdat techniques, to look like actual sherpa journals.

    (The challenge was to use the words esurient, evagination, sporran, samizdat, and sampan in a single sentence).

    December 9, 2008

  • Now, a full-mask Elmo sporran, I'd think about wearing that.

    December 9, 2008

  • You would? Down...you know...where sporrans are worn?

    December 9, 2008

  • Hell yeah. I wouldn't have to do anything to make people laugh--just walk down the street. A visible, effortless comedy act.

    Not to mention the bonus of having Elmo decapitated.

    December 9, 2008

  • Well, there's that.

    December 9, 2008

  • Wasn't it referred to on the Johnny Carson Show as "that hairy thing Scotsmen have below their kilt"?

    December 25, 2008