Emporion

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A trading post or marketplace in ancient times, especially in regions where goods were exchanged between cultures
2. A site designated for commerce, often associated with maritime trade in classical antiquity
3. An establishment or locality where merchants gathered to conduct business and trade goods from various sources

Etymology: The Greek "emporion" was built from "en" ("in") and "poros" ("passage, way"), so it originally meant something like "a place where you go in," a trading post or market reached by travelling in. The root "poros" also gives English "pore" and "emporium" in its later Latin form, and the sense of a passage or way through is what lies beneath the idea of a place where goods pass through. The word's most famous use is in ancient Greek settlements around the Mediterranean and Black Sea, where an emporion was a trading station, often set up at the edge of a foreign territory, where merchants could exchange goods without establishing a full colony. Greek writers such as Herodotus used it for such places, and archaeologists still call many of these sites emporia. Latin took the word as "emporium," and it entered English in the 1500s, first for a city known for commerce and later for large shops, which is why a department store can still be called an emporium today.

Synonyms: marketplace, emporium, bazaar, trading post, market