English Explanatory Dictionary

Porte

English dictionary entry

Meanings

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

Word forms

Porte Ottoman Porte Sublime Porte

Etymology

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.

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