Etymograph

English

Porte

Porte comes from Middle French porte ‘gate’.

  1. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600porte‘gate’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1793Porte

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history not traced here.

Lineage

  1. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600porte‘gate’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1793Porte

Earliest quotation: 1793, Hester Piozzi: “Another odd Combination: 'tis now confidently asserted that the…”

The story

From Middle French porte (‘gate’), ultimately after Ottoman Turkish باب عالی (Bâb-ı Âli, “Exalted Gate”), from Arabic بَاب (bāb, “gate”) and عَالِيّ (ʕāliyy, “high, exalted”), a synecdoche for the Ottoman government originally referring to the outer gate of the sultan's Topkapı palace at which justice was administered, and later to the gate of the palace of the grand vizier.

Every English word from Middle French porte

Today it means

name The Ottoman court; (hence), the government of the Ottoman empire.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Middle French porte / Porte

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