portata

Portata is an Italian term with two principal uses in common usage, depending on context. In gastronomy, portata refers to a course or dish served as part of a meal. It is used to describe an individual item in the sequence of courses, such as una portata di antipasti, una portata di primo, or una portata principale. The plural form, portate, can denote multiple courses. In menus and culinary writing, portata is a way to indicate portions and the progression of dishes, rather than a specific recipe.

In hydrology and civil engineering, portata means discharge or flow rate—the volume of water passing a given cross-section of a stream, river, or channel per unit of time. It is commonly expressed in cubic meters per second (m3/s) or liters per second, and it is a key parameter in flood forecasting, river management, and dam operation. Portata can vary with rainfall, snowmelt, season, geological characteristics, and human interventions such as hydroelectric use or irrigation. Measurements may be obtained directly with flow meters or inferred from stage–discharge relationships and hydraulic models. A related term, portata massica, denotes the mass flow rate.

Etymology traces portata to the verb portare, “to carry,” reflecting the idea of something carried to the table or carried by a river. While the two senses are unrelated in practice, they share the same root concept of carrying or conveying a portion, either of food or of water.