Luggage is any number of bags, cases and containers which hold a traveller’s articles during transit. The modern traveller can be expected to have packages containing clothing, toiletries, small possessions, trip necessities, and on the return-trip, souvenirs. For some, luggage and the style thereof is representative of the owner’s wealth.
An individual can be referred to as “luggage” when they have either a) been consuming copious amounts of alcohol, or b) are rightously hungover. lol…
Baggage can be synonymous with “luggage”, or can refer to the train of people and goods, both military and of a personal nature, which commonly followed pre-modern armies on campaign. Typically, the baggage would consist of the possessions (often including varying quantities of booty, goods looted from conquered territories or spoils of past battle such as weapons and armor of fallen enemies) of the military personnel, together with their wives, children, male and female prostitutes, and other non-fighting personnel. It would also include military gear not in use in the battle being fought. The baggage was considered a strategic resource and closely guarded. Its loss was considered to weaken and demoralize an army, leading to rearguard attacks such as that at the Battle of Agincourt.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word luggage enters printed English in 1596. The word derived from the verb “lug,” as in “that which needs to be lugged about.” The idea of pulling things inherent in the verb lug combines with the suffix -age to create the word we know today.
“Baggage” is a similar word with the same suffix. This common word ending (-age) means that the item is functionally related to the root word; hence “baggage” is functionally related to the noun “bag,” and luggage related to the act of “lugging.”