seraglios
plural of seraglio
• gasoliers, girasoles
Source: Wiktionary
Se*ragl"io, n. Etym: [It. serraglio, originally, an inclosure of palisades, afterwards also, a palace, seraglio (by confusion with Per. sera\'8ba a palace, an entirely different word), fr. serrare to shut, fr. LL. serra a bar for fastening doors, L. sera. See Serry, Series.]
1. An inclosure; a place of separation. [Obs.] I went to the Ghetto, where the Jews dwell as in a suburb, by themselves. I passed by the piazza Judea, where their seraglio begins. Evelyn.
2. The palace of the Grand Seignior, or Turkish sultan, at Constantinople, inhabited by the sultan himself, and all the officers and dependents of his court. In it are also kept the females of the harem.
3. A harem; a place for keeping wives or concubines; sometimes, loosely, a place of licentious pleasure; a house of debauchery.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
19 April 2025
(verb) grasp with the mind or develop an understanding of; “did you catch that allusion?”; “We caught something of his theory in the lecture”; “don’t catch your meaning”; “did you get it?”; “She didn’t get the joke”; “I just don’t get him”
The word “coffee” entered the English language in 1582 via the Dutch “koffie,” borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish “kahve,” borrowed in turn from the Arabic “qahwah.” The Arabic word qahwah was traditionally held to refer to a type of wine.
