Suitcase

How to spell suitcase

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce suitcase

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does suitcase mean?

1. nounA flat rectangular case with a handle, used to carry clothes and belongings when travelling.

Suitcase in a sentence

• She packed a single suitcase for the weekend trip.

• The airline charged extra for a second suitcase.

Where does suitcase come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is a compound of two older words, suit and case, that English fused together in the late nineteenth century to name a flat travelling box made to hold a suit of clothes. The first element, suit, came through Old French suite from the Latin verb sequi, meaning 'to follow', because a suit was originally a set of garments that followed or matched one another. The second element, case, came from the Latin capsa, meaning 'box' or 'container', the same root that gives us 'capsule' and 'cash register'. The two words were joined as travel by rail became common and people needed a light rigid box for clothing, with the earliest recorded uses dating from around the 1890s. The spelling trap lives entirely in the first half: the unexpected 'ui' vowel pair in suit, which can be written as 'suite' (a different word) if a writer is not careful.

How the word is built

• suit (from suite, a set of clothes)
• case (a box or container)