different between bearing vs portance

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?b??????/
• (US) enPR: bâr'?ng IPA^(key): /?b????/
• Rhymes: -?????

Etymology 1

From Middle English beringe, berynge, berende, berande, berand, from Old English berende (“bearing; fruitful”) (also as synonym Old English b?rende), from Proto-Germanic *berandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *beran? (“to bear; carry”), equivalent to bear +? -ing.

Verb

bearing

1. present participle of bear

Adjective

bearing (not comparable)

1. (in combination) That bears (some specified thing).

   a gift-bearing visitor

2. Of a beam, column, or other device, carrying weight or load.

   That's a bearing wall.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English bering, beringe, berynge, equivalent to bear +? -ing.

Noun

bearing (plural bearings)

1. A mechanical device that supports another part and/or reduces friction.
2. (navigation, nautical) The horizontal angle between the direction of an object and another object, or between it and that of true north; a heading or direction.
3. (in the plural, especially in phrases such as 'get one's bearings') One's understanding of one's orientation or relative position, literally or figuratively.

   Do we go left here or straight on? Hold on, let me just get my bearings.

   I started a new job last week, and I still haven't quite found my bearings.

4. Relevance; a relationship or connection.

   That has no bearing on this issue.
5. One's posture, demeanor, or manner.

   She walks with a confident, self-assured bearing.
6. (architecture) That part of any member of a building which rests upon its supports.

   A lintel or beam may have four inches of bearing upon the wall.

7. (architecture) The portion of a support on which anything rests.
8. (architecture, proscribed) The unsupported span.

   The beam has twenty feet of bearing between its supports.

9. (heraldry) Any single emblem or charge in an escutcheon or coat of arms.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo

     Jos Sedley's open carriage, with its magnificent armorial bearings.

Hyponyms

Related terms

• find one’s bearings
• get one’s bearings
• lose one’s bearings

Translations

See also

• ABEC
• bearing on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Binegar, bangier, barge in

English

Etymology

From Middle French portance (“a carrying, support”), from porter (“to carry”), from Latin portare (“carry, bear, convey”).

Noun

portance (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) The manner in which one carries oneself; behaviour.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.iii:

     […] for in court gay portaunce he perceiu'd, / And gallant shew to be in greatest gree […]

Synonyms

• port (also a dated/archaic sense)

Anagrams

• Caperton, co-parent, coparent, rent-a-cop

French

Etymology

porter +? -ance

Noun

portance f (plural portances)

1. lift (upward force, such as that which keeps an aircraft aloft)
2. bearing pressure

Further reading

• “portance” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• coparent