Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A large harem.
- n. A sultan's palace. Also called serai.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An inclosure; a place to which certain persons are confined, or where they are restricted within prescribed bounds.
- n. A walled palace; specifically, the chief or official palace of the Sultan of Turkey at Constantinople. It is of great size, and contains government buildings, mosques, etc., as well as the sultan's harem.
- n. A place for the seclusion of concubines; a harem; hence, a place of licentious pleasure.
Wiktionary
- n. The palace of the Grand Seignior in Constantinople.
- n. The sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in a Turkish Muslim household.
- n. A brothel or place of debauchery.
- n. An interior cage or enclosed courtyard for keeping wild beasts.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An inclosure; a place of separation.
- n. 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.
- n. A harem; a place for keeping wives or concubines; sometimes, loosely, a place of licentious pleasure; a house of debauchery.
WordNet 3.0
- n. living quarters reserved for wives and concubines and female relatives in a Muslim household
Etymologies
- Italian serraglio, enclosure, seraglio, probably partly from Vulgar Latin *serraculum, enclosure (from *serrāre, to lace up, from Latin serāre, from sera, door-bar) and partly from Turkish saray, palace (from Persian sarāy, inn; see terə-2 in Indo-European roots).
Examples
“Christian writers and readers are too apt to confound the seraglio with the harem, and to suppose that the former means the apartments belonging to the sultan's ladies; whereas the word seraglio, or rather _sernil_, represents the entire palace of which the harem, or females 'dwelling, is but a comparatively small portion.”
“In fact, the harem was the section of the palace that housed the sultan’s family and was known as the seraglio.”
“Well, yes, I think so," said Jack; "dancing Circassian girls and the seraglio was the topic of the conversation, unless I am wandering in my mind.”
Jack Harkaway's Boy Tinker Among The Turks Book Number Fifteen in the Jack Harkaway Series
“The seraglio is a vast inclosure, occupying nearly the entire site of the ancient city of Byzantium, and embracing a circumference of five miles.”
“Manon Baletti, who was too happy to have had an opportunity of spewing her affection for me; and her joy was full when I told her that I was going to give up business, for she thought that my seraglio was the only obstacle to my marriage with her.”
“Afterwards I went to sup with Manon Baletti, who was too happy to have had an opportunity of spewing her affection for me; and her joy was full when I told her that I was going to give up business, for she thought that my seraglio was the only obstacle to my marriage with her.”
“The luscious passion of the seraglio is the only one almost that is gratified here to the full; but it is blended so with the surly spirit of despotism in one of the parties, and with the dejection and anxiety which this spirit produces in the other, that, to one of my way of thinking, it cannot appear otherwise than as a very mixed kind of enjoyment.”
Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M--y W--y M--e
“I did not omit this opportunity of learning all that I possibly could of the seraglio, which is so entirely unknown amongst us.”
Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M--y W--y M--e
“Indeed, when Ruth waited a moment before spelling "seraglio," Rosa in her haste blurted out the word, and Julia smiled and there was a little rustle of expectancy.”
“Curled up in his seraglio-inspired space, I took in the visual splendor — the towering four-poster mirrored bed with striped silk taffeta upholstery, the wall-to-wall caramel cashmere underfoot, the yards of couture curtains across simple French windows and the endless originality — which all added up to a tailored, comfortable, no-grandmother-in-sight inner sanctum.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘seraglio’.
-
Note to self: don't name your daughter this.
Words that are lovely but don't have lovely meanings
seraglio, chlamydia, miasma, bellicose, vinaigrette, catarrhy, porcine
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.