baggage

Etymology

From Middle English bagage, from Old French bagage, baguage, from bague (“bundle, sack”), from Germanic (compare English bag).

noun

1. (uncountable) Portable cases, large bags, and similar equipment for manually carrying, pushing, or pulling personal items while traveling
   Please put your baggage in the trunk.
   As soon as they had determined on their course, Ya-nei slid under the bed, and made himself a place among the baggages. 1929, Charles Georges Souli, Eastern Shame Girl
   Needless to say, one's seat must be booked in advance and a platoon of urbane officials, one to each door of the train, awaits passengers to usher them to their seats and relieve them of their bulkier baggage. 1960 March, G. Freeman Allen, “Europe's most luxurious express - the "Settebello"”, in Trains Illustrated, page 140
   Alone, she clings to her baggages on the street. September 20, 1991, Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Love Films: A Cassavetes Retrospective”, in Chicago Reader
   The audacious hijacking in Paris of a van carrying the baggage of a Saudi prince to his private jet is obviously an embarrassment to the French capital, whose ultra-high-end boutiques have suffered a spate of heists in recent months. 21 August 2014, “A brazen heist in Paris [print version: International New York Times, 22 August 2014, p. 8]”, in The New York Times
   Uncountable synonyms: luggage; gear; stuff
   Countable synonyms: bags; suitcases
2. (uncountable, informal) Factors, especially psychological ones, which interfere with a person's ability to function effectively.
   This person has got a lot of emotional baggage.
   […]How much shall I honour one, who has a stronger propensity to poetry, and has got a greater name in it, if he performs his promise to me of putting away these idle baggages after his sacred espousal. 1846, Henry Francis Cary, Lives of the English Poets
   Flynn was so flawed, team Trump was repeatedly warned about his baggage by both then acting AG Sally Yates and President Obama, and even as reported this week, General Flynn himself! But Trump kept standing by him anyway, which kind of makes sense in a way, because literally every decision in the Trump administration is the worst possible one. “Paper or plastic? Whichever one kills the most birds!” “Soup or salad? I’m gonna go with the n-word!” “Favorite Beatle? It’s got to be Yoko!” May 21 2017, “Stupid Watergate”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 13, John Oliver (actor), via HBO
3. (obsolete, countable, derogatory) A woman.
   Betty and Molly (they were soft-hearted baggages) felt for their master--pitied their poor master! 1828, Various, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, No. 288
   But he had a roving eye and a joyous temperament; and though he loved me better than any of the baggages to whom he paid court, he would not visit me so often as he should. 1897, Charles Whibley, A Book of Scoundrels
   But your perverse attempts to wring blushes from little baggages in convenient corners outrage my love of Love! 1910, Gertrude Hall, Chantecler
   However, terrible as it may seem to the tall maiden sisters of J.P.'s in Queen Anne houses with walled vegetable gardens, this courtesan, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie, street-walker, this trollop, this trull, this baggage, this hussy, this drab, skit, rig, quean, mopsy, demirep, demimondaine, this wanton, this fornicatress, this doxy, this concubine, this frail sister, this poor Queenie--did actually solicit me, did actually say 'coming home to-night, dearie' and my soul was not blasted enough to call a policeman. 1936, Anthony Bertram, Like the Phoenix
   Shall we ask this baggage to sit down or shall we just throw her out of the window? 1964: My Fair Lady (film)
4. (military, countable (obsolete) and uncountable) An army's portable equipment; its baggage train.
   Friedrich decides to go down the River; he himself to Lowen, perhaps near twenty miles farther down, but where there is a Bridge and Highway leading over; Prince Leopold, with the heavier divisions and baggages, to Michelau, some miles nearer, and there to build his Pontoons and cross. 1865, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia
   In Poland, for example, the unknown Bolesław Bierut, who appeared in 1944 in the baggage of the Red Army, and who played a prominent role as a ‘non-party figure’ in the Lublin Committee, turned out to be a Soviet employee formerly working for the Comintern. 2007, Norman Davies, No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939–1945, New York: Penguin, page 305