Portagee, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Portagee n.

also Portugee, Portygee

1. a Portuguese person.

1830		J.F. Cooper Water Witch II 197: It being altogether unreasonable to suppose that a Portuguee should do what an Englishman had not yet thought of doing.
1837		Drogheda Argus 26 Aug. 1/5: No wonder the french mistook ye for a Portagee.
1840		West Kent Guardian 4 July 6/3: The dickens a one o’ the like o’ Mrs Adams [...] ud ate the same Queen [...] just as soon as a Portagee would.
1853		Sthn Reporter (Cork) 10 Feb. 3/4: I would have sent you some from Rio but i could not undersatand the Portagees.
1861		O.W. Holmes Elsie Venner II 140: I can’t help mistrustin’ them Portagee-lookin’ fellahs.
1876		Western Times 29 Jan. 2/5: One Spaniard, two Portagee, ’long come an Englishman and took them all three.
1885		Reading Mercury 10 Jan. 8/3: Mr Smith ably performed the duties of M.C., ‘Portagee Joe’ acting as policeman.
1890		S. Wales Echo 3 Apr. 4/2: The crew [...] had been sworn at fore and aft, and called ‘Portagee dogs’.
1903		H. James Ambassadors (1960) 127: I think I make out a ‘Portagee’.
1904		Kipling ‘The Bonds of Discipline’ in Traffics and Discoveries 45: He didn’t see why a lop-eared Portugee had to take liberties with a man-o’-war’s first cutter.
1914		G. Herriman Dingbat Family 8 May [synd. cartoon strip] A mustash like a ‘Portygee baron’.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 58: Got ut down at th’ Portugee’s when youse went out.
1927		(con. 1917) J. Stevens Mattock 24: The Portugees went to singing in their own language.
1940		R. Service ‘The Ballad of How MacPherson Held the Floor’ in Bar Room Ballads (1978) 614: Likewise Dutch, Dago, Swede and Finn, Polack and Portugee.
1968		J. Colebrook Cross of Lassitude 43: Not Beppo – not that Portygee girl.
1988–9		Maledicta X 233: The term Portagee, to refer to the Portuguese, is also used, customarily in some orthographic version of Portugee, as the derisive part of an adjectival combination.

2. the Portuguese language.

1930

(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 147: His father was a silent man and spoke mostly Portugee.

In compounds

Portagee colonial (n.) (also Portagee chic, Portugee chic, ...colonial, immigrant chic) [racial stereotyping]

(US) cheap furniture, touted as ultra fashionable and peddled mainly to gullible recent immigrants.

1988–9

Maledicta X 233: Portagee colonial (or Immigrant chic) refers to that cheaply made ‘modern’ furniture, the chief buyer of which is the unsuspecting recent immigrant.

Portagee lawnmower (n.) (also Portugee lawnmower) [racial stereotyping]

a goat used to keep the grass trimmed.

1988–9

Maledicta X 233: A Portagee lawnmower is a goat used to keep down growth.

Portagee lift (n.) (also Portugee lift) [racial stereotyping; orig. used on US docks]

one who carries less than their share of a load.

1979		Maledicta III:2 171: Portugee lift n Letting another do most of the lifting.
1988–9		Maledicta X 233: Portagee lift, a combination used by longshoremen to criticize one another when someone carries less than his share of the load.

Portagee overdrive (n.) [the stereotyped poverty of Portuguese immigrants]

(US) freewheeling down hills to save petrol.

1988–9

Maledicta X 233: Portagee overdrive, the ‘gear’ used by a trucker (or other driver) to coast downhil with gears disengaged.