port

en-noun

port (countable and uncountable, plural ports)

From Old English port, borrowed from Latin portus (“port, harbour”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pértus (“crossing”) (and thus a distant doublet of ford). The directional sense, attested since at least the 1500s, derives from ancient vessels with the steering oar on the right (see etymology of starboard), which therefore had to moor with their left sides facing the dock or wharf. doublet of fjord, ford, fjard, and firth

doublet

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

peering in maps for ports and piers and roads

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

From the ground, Colombo's port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.

2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:

A place on the coast at which ships can shelter, or dock to load and unload cargo or passengers.


marina

From Latin marinus (“of the sea, marine”), by way of Italian marina and Spanish marina.

It's a peaceful marina with not too many boats and yachts.

Marina

specialist, not generally understood also


harbor

en-noun

harbor (countable and uncountable, plural harbors)

→ Cebuano: harbor

→ Marshallese: aba

→ Welsh: harbwr

From Middle English herberwe, herber, from Old English herebeorg (“shelter, lodgings, quarters”), from Proto-West Germanic *harjabergu (“army shelter, refuge”), from *harjaz (“army”) + *bergō (“protection”), equivalent to Old English here (“army, host”) + beorg (“defense, protection, refuge”). Doublet of harbinger. See also here, harry, borrow and bury.

inh

[T]here aboutes dwelt greate multitudes of people half wilde, hiding thẽſelues in caues of the grounde, of ſmall ſtature, and very fearefull, for as ſoone as they ſawe them they fled into their holes, and that there was a great riuer and very good harborough.

1582, Nicolas [i.e., Nicolo] Zeno; Antonio Zeno, “The Discouerie of the Isles of Frisland, Iseland, Engroueland, Estotiland, Drogeo and Icaria, Made by M. Nicolas Zeno, Knight, and M. Antonio His Brother”, in R[ichard] H[akluyt], compiler, Divers Voyages Touching the Discouerie of America, and the Ilands adiacent vnto the Same, […], London: […] [Thomas Dawson] for Thomas Woodcocke, […], →OCLC, signatures D4, recto – D4, verso:

A harbor, even if it is a little harbor, is a good thing, since adventurers come into it as well as go out, and the life in it grows strong, because it takes something from the world, and has something to give in return.

1881 October, Sarah Orne Jewett, “River Driftwood”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 48, number 288, page 510:

(countable, nautical) A sheltered expanse of water, adjacent to land, in which ships may anchor or dock, especially for loading and unloading.


seaport

A town or harbour with facilities for seagoing ships to dock and take on or discharge cargo.


landing

A place on a shoreline where a boat lands.

мя́сто за дебарки́ране

a place on a shoreline where a boat lands


wharf

From Middle English wharf, from Old English hwearf (“heap, embankment, wharf”); related to Old English hweorfan (“to turn”), Old Saxon hwerf (whence German Werft), Dutch werf, Old High German hwarb (“a turn”), hwerban (“to turn”), Old Norse hvarf (“circle”), and Ancient Greek καρπός (karpós, “wrist”).

Commerce pushes its wharves into the sea.

1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC:

Out upon the wharfs they came, / Knight and burgher, lord and dame, / And round the prow they read her name, / The Lady of Shalott.

1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Lady of Shalott”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, part IV, page 86:

A man-made landing place for ships on a shore or river bank.


port of call

(nautical) any port (except its home port) being visited by a ship, especially to load or unload cargo or passengers or to take on supplies


outport

Outport or provincial contacts like those of Cogan, Vassal, Bidgood, or Samuel Cole were exceptions. To a remarkable extent the first exchanges of goods were carried on between London and Boston. In fact, the bulk of the traffic originated in a few streets of the English capital.

1955, Bernard Bailyn, The New England Merchants In The Seventeenth Century, Harvard University Press, page 36:

A port city or harbor which is secondary to a main port; it may be a distant one or a nearby auxiliary one.


harbourage

en-noun

harbourage (countable and uncountable, plural harbourages)


harbourmaster

(British, Canada) Alternative spelling of harbormaster


harborage

harborage (countable and uncountable, plural harborages)

(US, nautical) A place for refuge for a vessel.


harbormaster

(US, nautical) An official responsible for the enforcement of regulations in a port.


harbor gasket

(US, nautical) A line or band used to lash a furled sail when in port.


homeport

The port where a vessel is based (not necessarily the one where it is registered).


port of entry

For the Japanese, continued Russian control of Ying-k'ou was not simply a legal matter. Since Ying-k'ou was the major port of entry for Japanese goods into Manchuria, the Russian occupation threatened to undermine Japanese commercial interests.

1996, S. C. M. Paine, Imperial Rivals: China, Russia, and Their Disputed Frontier, M. E. Sharpe, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 212:

The Motor Carrier Act that opened the U.S. side of the U.S.-Mexican border shows that on average 46.4. local trucking and courier service establishments left each port of entry.

2014, John T. Jones, The Economic Impact of Transborder Trucking Regulations, →ISBN:

A harbor, airport, or border crossing where goods or immigrants enter a country.


secondary port

(navigation) A port whose tidal predictions are not given directly in tide tables, and must be calculated based on the tidal curve of a standard port.


standard port

(navigation) A port whose tidal predictions are given directly in tide tables


free port

A port or other area with relaxed jurisdiction of customs, tax rule or related national regulations.


home port

(nautical) Alternative spelling of homeport


port authority

port authority (plural port authorities)

A public authority which operates a port or other transportation infrastructure.


container port

(shipping) A port which specialises in handling the loading and unloading of shipping containers onto and from container ships.


megaport

Given the critical importance of megaports to sea transport, might we witness a rebirth of interest in sea-lane protection, a mission that has in recent years lost ground to the task of projecting naval power ashore?

2001, Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute, volume 127, page 64:

They are all border crossings across our borders into the U.S. and I was thinking of these 650 border sites and 100 megaports.

2012, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, Energy and Water Development Appropriations for 2013, page 193:

An extremely large port, especially one that combines support for air, naval, and/or terrestrial travel.


port of registry

port of registry (plural ports of registry)

(nautical) The port where a boat or ship is officially registered, which determines legal consequences such as taxation.


dry port

an inland intermodal terminal directly connected by road or rail to a seaport


cothon

From Ancient Greek κώθων (kṓthōn), rendering a Phoenician term meaning something like "excavated". (Cothon was the name of the island in Carthage's artificial harbor, namesake of the type.)

The cothons at Carthage, during the Punic wars, are said to have held over two hundred ships. The small size of the Motya cothon may be accounted for by […]

1965, Helen Hill Miller, Sicily and the Western Colonies of Greece, New York: Scribner:

Cothons - artificial inner harbours, or perhaps rather docks and repair basins - are another architectural feature ascribed to Phoenician and Punic towns […]

1973, Rivista Di Studi Fenici, volume 1, page 142:

It resembles the Phoenician cothons'.

1999, Ancient Infrastructure: Remarkable Roads, Mines, Walls, Mounds, Stone Circles : a Catalog of Archeological Anomalies:

An artificial, protected harbor in a Phoenician city, especially and originally the one in Carthage.


harbour master

(British) Alternative spelling of harbormaster


top selling

en-adjective

top selling (comparative more top selling, superlative most top selling)

more top selling (comparative)
most top selling (superlative)


top-selling

top-selling (comparative more top-selling, superlative most top-selling)

more top-selling (comparative)
most top-selling (superlative)

She's one of our top-selling authors.

Producing books, songs, etc. that are extremely popular and sell in larger quanitites than others.