What is the difference between pocketbook and purse

A purse is used to describe a bag with straps that can be worn over the shoulder. Handbag is also used to describe a very similar bag but with more functionality. While purse and handbags are very similar, most people agree that handbags are roomier than purses.

Handbags have enough space to bring everything you may need during the day: makeup, phone, wallet, water bottles. While purses are much smaller and useful for only essential items.

Although there is no definitive answer to the question, we all agree that is all about personal preference. If a woman carries a handbag, she will often have a purse inside that bag. I have the impression that the use of "pocketbook" is somewhat regional in the US.

It is still a common term in New York for a woman's handbag as in Stella always carries a comb and a mirror in her pocketbook , but I think it is not as common in other parts of the country. Thanks for the comments! To me, a pocketbook is a small, hand-held item not much larger than a checkbook, often made of leather. To me, a handbag would have a handle or strap on it. A purse could be anything from a tiny sack-like object with a clasp on it smaller than an envelope to a large handbag.

To me, a pocketbook has a handle or a strap as well. That is interesting, GWB. I did notice when searching for images of pocketbooks that many of the photos were of objects I would call a handbag, as are your images.

As you said, it might be a regionalism. Then again, I know next to nothing about fashion. If my wife said, "Can you grab my pocketbook for me? Obviously a regional thing. Don't make me hit you with my pocketbook is the refrain. I wasn't at all sure what the word meant but pictured something like the one JamesM links to in post Ewie, I would understand that to mean she was going to hit him with a good-sized handbag, and would use the strap to swing it to increase the momentum, and thus the force of the blow.

JamesM said:. Click to expand GreenWhiteBlue said:. Marbles Member Washington. Don't you think that sometimes old words hang around and can be pulled out of the hat to add some variety? Clearly purse is the everyday term, with very little punch, while pocketbook comes back around when someone wants to say something like "That's going to hurt your pocketbook! Except for the expressions like "hurts your pocketbook", I have only heard pocketbook used by those of my grandparents' generation for what those of later generations call a purse, in particular the kind with a strap and various pockets, usually black.

I polled the women in my office on handbag, purse and pocketbook. All of these terms are used by them currently. I'm from Australia and happened upon this site in my quest to find out what a pocketbook is.

We don't use that term at all in Australia. We use "handbag" to mean the bag with straps that women carry. Our purse goes into our handbag and carries our money, both coins and paper money. A wallet is used by men and only carries paper money.

An evening bag is called that, or perhaps a handbag if it has straps or a purse if it doesn't. I believe handbag is more British usage, purse more North American. Much was and since the film with Meryl Streep is once again made of Mrs Thatcher's forceful use of her handbag, and I've never seen it referred to a purse in that context.

The way Aunt Augusta repeats "in a handbag" with a combination of scorn, astonishment and condescension when she hears of this unfortunate origin of the foundling is a classic.

I'm from Massachusetts, people I know use "purse," "bag," and occasionally "pocketbook. Also, my grandmother is from Nova Scotia and I always laugh when she calls her wallet her "billfold" such a literal term. My wife uses "bag" unless it is a small evening "purse. She would use "purse" for the small wallet-like thing she put in her "bag.

I grew up in New York state, and my mother's everyday, workhorse carryall was always a pocketbook. On formal occasions she would carry her bare essentials in a tiny purse. Although the two are essentially interchangeable, many have dubbed the p-word as old-fashioned. So, a good rule of thumb is that when you're aiming to come off as more fashion-forward, call it a handbag.

The term handbag tends to refer to higher-end bags , so think of it as a more chic and sophisticated word. Most people would call the bag a celebrity is wearing a handbag, not a purse.

And as if the handbag vs purse debate wasn't complicated enough, society has thrown another word at us. What makes something a pocketbook, but not a purse or a handbag? Although most dictionaries define a pocketbook as simply just a woman's handbag, there are a few ways you can differentiate between them. A pocketbook is usually used to refer to a medium sized bag - a bag bigger than a purse, and smaller than a handbag. It's mainly used in the United States, and is especially popular in the Northeast and Southeast.

Other countries don't use this term. The term pocketbook is more common among older generations. The definition of pocketbook has changed over time. During the origin of the word in the seventeenth century , pocketbook referred to a small book that could fit in a pocket.