suitcase

Etymology

It is a compound from English suit + case, with suit in the sense of a set of clothes and case in the sense of a box or container.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A small case for carrying a suit or suits when travelling: 1873, in an advertisement in the Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle.^[2] The older dictionaries date it later: Merriam-Webster to 1897,^[4] Etymonline to 1898,^[3] Dictionary.com to 1900–05^[6] and the Shorter Oxford to the early 20th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Made at first to hold a suit, the case soon became any flat, usually rectangular travelling case for clothes and belongings.^[2][3] The phrase to live out of a suitcase, to live with one's things still packed or to move from place to place, is recorded from 1920 in the OED^[2] and by 1946 in Etymonline, which also has operate out of a suitcase from 1939.^[3] By 1954 the word was used of nuclear weapons small enough to be carried in one.^[3] In American jazz slang of the 1930s a suitcase was a drum kit.^[7]

Timeline

• 1873 – a case for carrying a suit when travelling.^[2]
• 1897 – first known use according to Merriam-Webster.^[4]
• 1920 – to live out of a suitcase.^[2]
• 1939 – US jazz slang, a drum kit.^[7]
• 1954 – of a small portable nuclear weapon.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flat, usually rectangular travelling case with a handle and a hinged lid, for carrying clothes and other belongings: She packed her suitcase the night before the flight.^[8][4][5][2]
2. live out of a suitcase: to stay only briefly in each place, keeping one's things packed.^[2][5]

Related words

• suit
• case

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins