Outremer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term denoting the overseas territories that were established by Europeans in the context of the Crusades in the Levant region
2. This expression signifies foreign lands occupied by European forces during the medieval Crusades in the Holy Land
3. A phrase representing the foreign regions acquired by Europeans during the Crusades specifically situated in the Levant

Etymology: French "outremer" literally means "beyond the sea," combining "outre" ("beyond," from Latin "ultra") and "mer" ("sea," from Latin "mare"). The phrase was used in medieval French to describe lands across the Mediterranean, especially the territories that Western Christians sought to hold in the Levant during the Crusades. English borrowed the word from French, and it carries that same sense of distant lands overseas. The term is a straightforward compound, so its meaning stays close to its literal parts: the sea lies between the speaker and the place described.