portly

adj

Etymology: From an archaic sense of port (“manner in which a person carries himself; bearing; deportment; carriage”) + -ly.

1. Somewhat fat, pudgy, overweight.

   “Indeed, the poor man has grown ten times as nervous as ever, since he has discovered, on such good authority, who the stout gentleman was. . . . He has anxiously endeavored to call up a recollection of what he saw of that portly personage; and has ever since kept a curious eye on all gentlemen of more than ordinary dimensions.”

   “In the length he attains, and in his baleen, the Fin-back resembles the right whale, but is of a less portly girth, and a lighter colour, approaching to olive.”

2. Having a dignified bearing; handsome, imposing.

   “He ſends this Souldans daughter rich and braue, To be my Queene and portly Empereſſe, […]”

   “Portly his person was, and much increast Through his Heroicke grace and honourable gest.”