port
pronunciation
How to pronounce port in British English:
UK [pɔːt]
How to pronounce port in American English:
US [pɔːrt]
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- Noun:
- a place (seaport or airport) where people and merchandise can enter or leave a country
- sweet dark-red dessert wine originally from Portugal
- an opening (in a wall or ship or armored vehicle) for firing through
- the left side of a ship or aircraft to someone facing the bow or nose
- (computer science) computer circuit consisting of the hardware and associated circuitry that links one device with another (especially a computer and a hard disk drive or other peripherals)
-
- Verb:
- transfer data from one computer to another via a cable that links connecting ports
- put or turn on the left side, of a ship
- bring to port
- land at or reach a port
- turn or go to the port or left side, of a ship
- carry, bear, convey, or bring
- carry or hold with both hands diagonally across the body, especially of weapons
- drink port
-
- Adjective:
- located on the left side of a ship or aircraft
Word Origin
- port
- port: English has no fewer than five distinct words port, all of them going back to the Latin stem port-, a descendant of the Indo-European base *por- ‘going, passage’ (from which English also gets fare, ford, etc). Based on this stem was portus ‘harbour’ (etymologically a ‘place by which one enters’), which was borrowed into English as port ‘harbour’ [OE].It is thought that the nautical port ‘left’ [17] originally denoted the side of the vessel facing harbour. And port the drink [17] gets its name from Oporto (literally ‘the port’), the town at the mouth of the river Douro in Portugal through which port is shipped. From Latin portus was derived the verb portāre, which presumably originally meant ‘bring into port’, but by classical times had broadened out to simply ‘carry’.This gave English the military verb port ‘carry’ [16], and also underlies deport [15], export [15], import, important, portable [14], portfolio [18] (etymologically a ‘carrier of leaves’ or papers), portly [16], portmanteau, report, and transport. Also from portus comes English opportunity. From the same stem came Latin porta ‘gate, door’, which reached English via Old French porte as port ‘gate’ [13].It came to be applied in the 14th century to an ‘opening in the side of a ship’, and it is now most commonly encountered in the compound porthole [16]. Portal [14] and portcullis are among its descendants.=> fare, ferry, fiord, ford; deport, export, import, important, opportunity, portable, portly, report, transport; porch, portal, portcullis, porthole, portico
- port (n.1)
- "harbor," Old English port "harbor, haven," reinforced by Old French port "harbor, port; mountain pass;" Old English and Old French words both from Latin portus "port, harbor," originally "entrance, passage," figuratively "place of refuge, asylum," from PIE *prtu- "a going, a passage," from root *per- (2) "to lead, pass over" (cognates: Sanskrit parayati "carries over;" Greek poros "journey, passage, way," peirein "to pierce, run through;" Latin porta "gate, door," portare "passage," peritus "experienced;" Avestan peretush "passage, ford, bridge;" Armenian hordan "go forward;" Welsh rhyd "ford;" Old Church Slavonic pariti "to fly;" Old English faran "to go, journey," Old Norse fjörðr "inlet, estuary"). Meaning "left side of a ship" (looking forward from the stern) is attested from 1540s, from notion of "the side facing the harbor" (when a ship is docked). It replaced larboard in common usage to avoid confusion with starboard; officially so by Admiralty order of 1844 and U.S. Navy Department notice of 1846. Figurative sense "place of refuge" is attested from early 15c.; phrase any port in a storm first recorded 1749. A port of call (1810) is one paid a scheduled visit by a ship.
- port (n.2)
- "gateway," Old English port "portal, door, gate, entrance," from Old French porte "gate, entrance," from Latin porta "city gate, gate; door, entrance," from PIE root *per- (see port (n.1)). Specific meaning "porthole, opening in the side of a ship" is attested from c. 1300.
- port (n.3)
- "bearing, mien," c. 1300, from Old French port, from porter "to carry," from Latin portare (see port (n.1)).
- port (n.4)
- type of sweet dark-red wine, 1690s, shortened from Oporto, city in northwest Portugal from which the wine originally was shipped to England; from O Porto "the port;" (see port (n.1)).
- port (v.)
- "to carry," from Middle French porter, from Latin portare "to carry" (see port (n.1)). Related: Ported; porting.
Example
- 1. Case in point : it 's spending $ 27 billion on an inland port in wuhan .
- 2. Port operations should benefit from improved global trade .
- 3. But some things the port can do little about .
- 4. By default , rackup will start a server on port 9292 .
- 5. Windows was an easy port .