seraglio

From Italian seraglio, from Vulgar Latin *serrāculum, from a late form of 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.

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

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. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292, 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.

• gasolier, gear oils, girasole