Dictionary Definition
portiere n : a heavy curtain hung across a
doorway
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Noun
Italian
Noun
Synonyms
- (1) portinario
- (2) estremo difensore
Related terms
Noun
portiere- Plural of portiera
Extensive Definition
A portiére is a hanging placed over a door or over the doorless entrance
to a room. Its name is derived from the French
word for door, porte . From Asia it came to
Europe at a
remote date. It is known to have been in use in Europe in the
4th
century , and was probably introduced much earlier. Like so
many other domestic plenishings, it reached England by way of
France,
where it appears to have been originally called rideau de Porte
(literally, "door curtain").
Common in wealthier households during the
Victorian
era, it is still occasionally used either as an ornament or as
a means of mitigating drafts. It is usually of some heavy material,
such as velvet, brocade, or plush, and is often fixed upon a
brass arm, moving in a
socket with the opening and closing of the door.
In Margaret
Mitchell's novel, Gone
with the Wind, the protagonist Scarlett
O'Hara makes a new dress from her mother's green velvet
portieres (the scene was famously parodied on The
Carol Burnett Show when Carol
Burnett, playing the role of Scarlett, wore not only the fabric
but the curtain rod as well).