caravansary

English

Etymology

Anglicization of caravanserai, influenced by -ary, -ery (suffix denoting ‘place of’), as if meaning “place of caravans” by reanalysis as caravan + -s- (interfix) + -ary, -ery.

cognates

• German Karawanserei

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkæɹəˈvænsəɹi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌkɛɹəˈvænsəɹi/
• Hyphenation: ca‧ra‧vans‧ary

Noun

caravansary (plural caravansaries)

1. Alternative spelling of caravanserai
   • 1712 February 11 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “THURSDAY, January 31, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 289; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, pages 445–446:

     A dervise travelling through Tartary, being arrived at the town of Balk, went into the king's palace by mistake, as thinking it to be a public inn, or caravansary. […] It happened that the king himself passed through the gallery during this debate, and, smiling at the mistake of the dervise, asked him how he could possibly be so dull as not to distinguish a palace from a caravansary? […] 'Ah, Sir,' said the dervise, a house that changes its inhabitants so often, and receives such a perpetual succession of guests, is not a palace, but a caravansary.'

     The spelling has been modernized.

   • 1801, Robert Southey, “The Fifth Book”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume I, London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC, page 269:

     But not in sumptuous Caravansary / The adventurer idles there, / Nor satiates wonder with her pomp and wealth; […]

   • 1891, George W[ashington] Cullum, “Period from July 31, 1812, to July 28, 1817. Brevet Brig.-General Joseph G[ardner] Swift, Superintendent.”, in Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. […], 3rd edition, volume III (Nos. 2001 to 3384), Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 617:

     Casting my fortunes at Mrs. Thompson's, I soon became initiated into the etiquette and usage of that polite caravansary; and I now write of that era of two-pronged forks, and when "saveall" was the choicest dish, and the observances at the table not altogether Chesterfieldian.

   • 1952 May, George Santayana, “I Like to Be a Stranger”, in Edward Augustus Weeks, editor, The Atlantic‎^[1], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-02-16, section 2:

     Only in Paris, a cosmopolitan caravansary in itself, did Americans and other foreigners fall nicely into the picture and spoil nothing in the charm of the place.

See also

• caravansery