porte cochère

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English[edit]

WOTD – 19 March 2022

Etymology[edit]

The porte cochère (sense 1) of the carriage gate leading to the porter’s lodge of the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A.
The porte cochère (sense 2) of Antony House in Cornwall, England, U.K.
This modern porte cochère (sense 2) at Marylebone station, London, is high enough for double-decker buses to pass underneath.

Unadapted borrowing from French porte cochère (literally “coach gateway”): porte (“door; gateway”) (ultimately from Latin porta (“door; entrance; gate; passage”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through; to carry forth, fare”)) + cochère (from coche (“stagecoach”) + -ière (feminine form of -ier (suffix forming the names of occupations, etc.)).[1] Coche is ultimately from Hungarian kocsi (“cart; horse carriage”), from Kocs, a village in Hungary known for making carriages.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

porte cochère (plural porte cochères or portes cochères) (architecture, road transport)

  1. (historical) A gateway through which horse carriages pass, often into a courtyard.
    • 1708, Mateo Aleman, chapter III, in [anonymous], transl., The Life of Guzman d’Alfarache: Or, The Spanish Rogue. […], volume I, London: […] R. Bonwick, […], →OCLC, part I, book III, page 400:
      We had admirable Noſes to ſmell out proper Places, and your Houſes with Porte-Cocheres were ſure to have enough of our Company.
    • 1724 April 17 (Gregorian calendar), [John Macky], “Letter I”, in A Journey through the Austrian Netherlands. […], London: […] J. Pemberton, […], and J. Hooke, […], published 1725, →OCLC, page 4:
      [M]oſt of the Houſes having Porte-Cocheres, and Court-yards, for the Conveniency and the Uſe of the Families.
    • 1742, [Daniel Defoe], “Letter III. Containing a Description of Part of Middlesex; and of the Whole County of Hertford.”, in A Tour thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain. […], 3rd edition, volume II, London: […] J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 160:
      As this Place [Kensington Palace] opens to the Weſt, there are Two great Wings build, for receiving ſuch as neceſſarily attend the Court, and a large Port-cocher at the Entrance, with a Poſtern, and a Stone Gallery, on the South-ſide of the Court, which leads to the great Stair-caſe.
    • 1846, Eugene Süe, “Regina”, in Martin the Foundling; or, The Memoirs of a Valet de Chambre, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 246, column 1:
      I at first perceived, at the exterior, only a long wall, in the center of which was a porte cochère. Not far from this door stood a vehicle drawn by two superb horses. […] Under the influence of this increased interest and curiosity, I knocked at the porte cochère, which was opened. Not perceiving any porter's lodge, I advanced towards a lofty square pavilion, which was situated between the yard and the garden.
    • 1855, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “[Sketches in Paris in 1825: From the Travelling Note-book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.] The Parisian Hotel.”, in Wolfert’s Roost and Other Papers, […], New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam & Co., […], →OCLC, page 193:
      The whole domain is shut up from the street by a great porte-cochère, or portal, calculated for the admission of carriages. This consists of two massy folding doors, that swing heavily opn upon a spacious entrance, passing under the front of the edifice into the court-yard.
    • 1857, Dudley Costello, “The Millionaire of Mincing Lane. A Tale of the Times.”, in Bentley’s Miscellany, volume XLI, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, chapter I (The Richest Heiress in England), page 5:
      That distinguishing feature of the street-architecture of Paris—the porte cochère—has its prototype still in the City of London, though it is almost as seldom met with now as the pointed gable, the latticed window, or the overhanging story of a much earlier period. […] But exceptions to the rule may yet be found, and here and there the curious seeker may stumble, even at the present hour, upon a genuine porte cochère.
    • 1862, Victor Hugo, “It is Not Enough to be a Drunkard to be Immortal”, in Cha[rle]s E[dwin] Wilbour, transl., Les Misérables. Cosette. A Novel. Translated from the Original French, volume II, New York, N.Y.: [George W.] Carleton, publisher, […], →OCLC, book 8 (Cemeteries Take What is Given Them), page 150, column 1:
      The Vaugirard Cemetery was an exception among the cemeteries of Paris. It had its peculiar usages, so far that it had its porte-cochère, and its small door which, in the quarter, old people, tenacious of old words, called the cavalier door, and the pedestrian door.
    • 1883 June 9, “Portes-Cochères”, in George Godwin, editor, The Builder: An Illustrated Weekly Magazine for the Architect, Engineer, Archæologist, Constructor, Sanitary Reformer, and Art-lover, volume XLIV, number 2105, Great Queen St. London, W.C.: Wyman & Sons, →OCLC, page 763, columns 1 and 3:
      [T]he feature of the large porte-cochère or carriage doorway is certainly sufficient in itself, were there no other dissimilarities, to attract even the most unobservant eye. […] The fact, however, of the porte-cochère taking up so much of the ground-floor is often most ingeniously compensated by making the space to the right or left of the doorway, as the case may be, into an excellent shop. […] [T]he yard at the back into which the porte-cochère opens has planned around it the stables and coach-house, an admirable arrangement of which we have more than once spoken in these columns.
    • 1895, George Rice Carpenter, “The Adventure of My Uncle”, in Washington Irving, Washington Irving’s Tales of a Traveller: […] (Longmans’ English Classics; no. 1), New York, N.Y., London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, footnote 2, page 27:
      The "chivalry of the Portes Cochères" la cavalerie des portes cochères, was the army raised by an act of parliament obliging each porte cochère (the house-door or gate at which carriages enter) to furnish a man and a horse.
    • 1913, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “Of That There Could Be No Question”, in Eldorado: An Adventure of the Scarlet Pimpernel, London: Hodder & Stoughton; New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, part I, page 210:
      The porte-cochère, so-called, is but a narrow doorway, and is actually situated in the Rue St. Germain l'Auxerrois. […] The porte-cochère of his former lodging-house was not yet open; he took up his stand close beside it.
    • 1992, Philippe Hamon, “Characters Exposed”, in Katia Sainson-Frank, Lisa Maguire, transl., Expositions: Literature and Architecture in Nineteenth-century France (The New Historicism; 20), Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif, London: University of California Press, →ISBN, part II (Texts and Their Monuments), page 168:
      [L]opsided buildings, shabby structures, large moldy portes cochères, fences that enclosed plots of wasteland with the disquieting paleness of stone at night, […]
    • 2011, Jacques Rancière, “The Politics of Literature”, in Julie Rose, transl., The Politics of Literature, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Malden, Mass.: Polity Press, →ISBN, part I (Hypotheses), pages 19–20:
      But it is also a world repopulated by fantastical creatures, camped behind all the shopfronts or lurking behind all the portes cochères; by new divinities from the earth and the underworld.
  2. A porch, or roof without walls over a driveway, next to the entrance of a building which a vehicle can stop in or under to allow passengers to embark or disembark without being affected by bad weather.
    • 1883 August 15, R. C. Gardner, “All Out-doors.—VI.”, in Albion W[inegar] Tourgée, editor, The Continent: An Illustrated Weekly Magazine, volume IV, number 7 (number 79 overall), Philadelphia, Pa.: Our Continent Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 208, column 2:
      This killing of two birds with one stone, making a porte-cochère and a second-story balcony at the same time, was so attractive to Mrs. Smith that it turned the scale in favour of a change. Her stable and carriage-drive were removed to the other side of the house, and Mrs. John rejoiced as an apparent joint-proprietor of the admired summer-house.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, pages 69–70:
      But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, […] By the time we reached the house we were thanking our stars she had come. Mrs. Cooke came out from under the port-cochère to welcome her.
    • 1939, Raymond Chandler, chapter 8, in The Big Sleep, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, published August 1992, →ISBN, page 39:
      I stopped the Packard under the porte-cochere and emptied my pockets out on the seat.
    • 2004, Gary A. Dias, Robbie Dingeman, “Your Home is Your Castle”, in Honolulu CSI: An Introduction to Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation, Honolulu, Hi.: Bess Press, →ISBN, page 162:
      Actually, a porte cochère is a canopy extending from a building to shelter people getting in and out of vehicles. Not too many people have porte cochères—French guys, mainly.
    • 2012, Andrew Martin, “The Expansion of the Metropolitan and the Expansion of the District – and a Pause for Thought”, in Underground Overground: A Passenger’s History of the Tube, London: Profile Books, →ISBN, page 78:
      The station remains connected to the hotel by a glass canopy or porte-cochère that was much admired by John Betjeman, but you could stand all day under that canopy and not see anyone walk from station to hotel.
    • 2014, Stephen Fry, “Living the Life”, in More Fool Me, London: Michael Joseph, →ISBN, page 223:
      The front desk had already made a great fuss of Johnny and Mary, lining up to greet him at the famous porte-cochère as soon as his splendid old Rolls-Royce had arrived with his faithful driver, factotum and friend John Novelli at the wheel.
    • 2022 June 29, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Wonderful waiting rooms on the waiting list”, in RAIL, number 960, pages 59–60:
      "This is a particularly good example of a timber railway station, with its Royal connection giving rise to some outstanding internal and external detailing. The swan-necked iron lamps, the porte-cochère and outstanding decoration in the Royal waiting room set the station apart."

Alternative forms[edit]

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Compare “porte-cochère, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “porte cochère, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading[edit]

French[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /pɔʁ.t(ə) kɔ.ʃɛʁ/

Noun[edit]

porte cochère f (plural portes cochères)

  1. (architecture, road transport) porte cochère

Descendants[edit]

  • → English: porte cochère
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