seraglio

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Italian seraglio, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Vulgar Latin *serrāculum, from a late form of (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin serāre (“lock up, close”), from sera (“lock, bolt”). The Italian word was used (because of phonetic similarity) to translate Persian سرای (sarāy, “lodgings, residence”). Compare serai, serail.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /səˈɹæljoʊ/, /səˈɹæɡliːoʊ/

Noun

seraglio (plural seraglios)

1. The palace of the Grand Seignior in Constantinople.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter X, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book V:

     At these words he started up, and beheld—not his Sophia—no, nor a Circassian maid richly and elegantly attired for the grand Signior's seraglio.

2. The sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines (odalisques) in a Turkish Muslim household.
3. A brothel or place of debauchery.
4. An interior cage or enclosed courtyard for keeping wild beasts.

Translations

Translations

• Esperanto: serajlo
• French: sérail (fr) m
• German: Serail (de) n
• Hungarian: szeráj (hu)
• Italian: serraglio (it) m
• Japanese: 後宮 (ja) (kōkyū)
• Polish: seraj (pl) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: са̀рај m

  Roman: sàraj (sh) m

• Spanish: serrallo m
• Turkish: saray (tr)

Anagrams

• gasolier, gear oils, girasole