Sublime Porte
English edit
Alternative forms edit
- High Porte
- Ottoman Porte
- Porte (shortening)
Etymology edit
From French Sublime Porte (“high gate/portal”).
Proper noun edit
Sublime Porte
- (literally) The monumental portal at the Ottoman palace where the supreme tribunals were held; became the surname of the first palace in Bursa, transferred to the even grander Topkapı palace after the capital's transfer to Istanbul (the former Byzantine imperial capital Constantinople)
- (figuratively) A pars pro toto for the Ottoman sultanic court, hence for the imperial government, notably the vizierial divan and the entire empire, or a personage with a similar standing.
- 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Matrimonial Tête-à-Tête”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 170:
- He liked the pleasures of the table, and he liked attendance; he was a sort of Sublime Porte to his valets.
Synonyms edit
- (pars pro toto) Istanbul
Translations edit
Ottoman imperial government
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See also edit
French edit
Etymology edit
Calque of Ottoman Turkish باب عالی (Babıali).
Proper noun edit
- the Sublime Porte, Ottoman sultanic palace, court, capital and empire
Descendants edit
- → English: Sublime Porte