Ports

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /pɔɹts/

Definitions

1. Locations on a coast or shore where ships dock and load or unload cargo or passengers ; physical or virtual connectors where devices link or communicate with other equipment or networks
2. Places by the water designed for ships to moor and transfer goods or people ; interfaces on electronic equipment that allow peripherals or networks to connect
3. Designated areas for vessels to anchor and perform loading tasks ; sockets or interfaces on hardware that enable communication or data exchange with other devices

Etymology: Latin "portus" meant a harbour or entrance, and it shares a root with "porta," meaning gate. The underlying idea is passage, a place where things go in and out. English took the Latin form early, so the seaside sense is there from the start: the harbour is where a ship passes into. The same sense of an opening applies to ships themselves. The gunports cut along a hull are openings, and the left-hand side of a vessel also takes this name, a usage that displaced "larboard" to avoid confusion with "starboard." Computing borrowed the gateway image. A hardware connector where a cable plugs in is called a port, and so is a numbered endpoint through which data enters or leaves a machine. In both cases the sense is an opening where something crosses from one side to the other.

Synonyms: harbors, terminals