portholen.
/ˈpɔːthəʊl/, U.S. /ˈpɔrtˌ(h)oʊl/ 1.
a. Nautical. Originally: an aperture in a ship's side through which a cannon may be pointed. Subsequently: a small window (usually circular) in the side of a boat or ship. Also figurative.
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > parts of vessels > other parts of body of vessel > [noun] > opening in side of vessel > for gun
porthole1569
embrasure1702
gun-port1769
port1769
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > parts of vessels > other parts of body of vessel > [noun] > opening in side of vessel > for light air
air-scuttle1748
air port1784
porthole1792
port1910
1569 T. Stocker tr. Diodorus Siculus Hist. Successors Alexander iii. xi. f. 121v He picked oute hys strongest Barques and furnished them with thicke planchers made out with great wyndowes, which serued in stead of Port holes to open and shut.
1591 R. Percyvall Bibliotheca Hispanica Dict. at Portañola A port-hole, porta.
1602 J. Marston Antonios Reuenge ii. ii. sig. D2 The port holes Of sheathed spirit are nere corb'd vp.
a1618 W. Raleigh Observ. Royal Navy (1650) 26 Wont to plant great red Port-holes in their broad sides, where they carried no Ordnance at all.
1691 T. Hale Acct. New Inventions p. x So contrived the Port Holes therein, that most of her Guns might point to one Center.
1759 W. Falconer Descr. Ninety-gun Ship 41 Full ninety brazen guns her port-holes fill.
1792 E. Burke On Negro Code in Wks. IX. 285 Grated port-holes between the decks.
1842 C. Dickens Amer. Notes I. i. 6 There was a beautiful port-hole which could be kept open all day (weather permitting).
1891 W. C. Russell Marriage at Sea I. iii. 81 A tall black steamboat,..her portholes glittering as though the whole length of her was studded with brilliants.
1943 D. Welch Maiden Voy. xiii. 105 In the evening I walked round the deck, passing constantly the portholes of Mrs Wright's cabin.
1992 Ships Monthly Apr. 40/3 Lit from the truck of her mast down to the lowest row of portholes at the waterline, she was a fine sight to see as she made her way downriver.
b. A small window in the side of an aircraft or spacecraft.
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society > travel > air or space travel > a means of conveyance through the air > spacecraft > parts of spacecraft > [noun] > window or door
porthole1911
hatch1962
1911 H. Gernsback in Mod. Electrics Dec. 596/2 It is of course of the utmost importance that no porthole or doors leading to the outside be ever opened as long as the flyer is in the outer space.
1927 Times 3 Aug. 7/6 Portholes [sc. in a flying boat] complete the illusion that one is in an ordinary liner.
1937 Lincoln (Nebraska) Evening Jrnl. 25 June 12/4 There is a hint of a woman's touch on the interiors—such as in the linen curtains at the portholes—but for the most part they are merely great winged flying machines.
1962 W. Schirra in J. Glenn et al. Into Orbit 33 They..pointed out that they had already stuck on a periscope and a couple of small port-holes, but we all felt strongly that a pilot ought to have a clear, visual reference to his surroundings.
1968 Listener 27 June 827/1 Departure by air could involve hazards quite separate from the lurking fears..of being sucked, à la James Bond, out of a porthole.
1970 T. Hughes Crow 13 It was cosy in the rocket, he could not see much But he peered out through the portholes at Creation.
2000 N.Y. Times 1 Jan. a30/1 From the porthole of their spacecraft that Christmas Eve in 1968 we could see how small, how wondrous our planet is.
2. In extended use.
a. An aperture in a wall, esp. serving as an embrasure; a small circular window in a building, resembling a ship's porthole (cf. porthole window n. at Compounds 2).
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society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > defensive walls > [noun] > battlements > embrasure
kernel?c1225
cornelc1300
carnelc1320
cornerc1400
vent1429
loop1477
crenel1481
gun-hole1532
spike1577
cannonery1598
spike-hole1598
casemate1611
porthole1637
skitegate1677
embrasure1702
crenelet1860
port1946
1637 H. Hexham True & Briefe Relation Famous Seige of Breda 42 These [batteries] being planted beate vpon the Ennemies port holes, and put one of their halfe Canon presently to silence.
1645 N. Drake Jrnl. Sieges Pontefract Castle 11 May (1861) 37 One of our men was looking out of a porthole on the Round tower.
1677 Earl of Orrery Treat. Art of War 118 Erect your Parapets, which may be Cannon-proof, with Portholes, or with great Cannon Gabions well fill'd with Earth.
a1701 H. Maundrell Journey Aleppo to Jerusalem (1703) 18 It has the face of a Castle being Built with port-holes for Artillery, instead of Windows.
1753 J. Hanway Hist. Acct. Brit. Trade Caspian Sea I. xxxiv. 232 This city is inclosed within a wall above a mile in each square, with a great number of regular turrets and port-holes for arrows.
1847 G. R. Gibson Jrnl. Feb. (1935) 336 The best of artillery has no effect upon them [sc. walls] except to make portholes for the enemy.
1892 Catholic World Apr. 107 It was also a trading-post, but a yet more extensive and elaborate structure, built after military models, with turrets, bastions, and portholes.
1931 Internat. Affairs 10 864 The frowning towers over the gates of Peking with port-holes filled with painted cannon.
1983 P. Fussell Class iv. 84 Some proles aim for status by going in for ‘portholes’ on their split-level ranch houses, circular openings a foot and a half in diameter with white surrounds.
2005 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 26 Jan. f.7/1 A fine lobster roll was served to me in a booth complete with a porthole.
b. An air-hole or access hole in a furnace.
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the world > space > relative position > condition of being open or not closed > an opening or aperture > [noun] > communicating with outside or air
vomica1572
vent-hole1612
vent1617
spiracle1620
spirament1654
air gap1842
porthole1858
the world > space > relative position > condition of being open or not closed > an opening or aperture > [noun] > communicating with outside or air > for escape or discharge of something
vent1570
venting-hole1601
pigeonhole1683
waste-hole1839
porthole1858
port1944
1726 in W. Derham Philos. Exper. R. Hooke & Other Virtuoso's 175 At the Bottom, make two Port-holes, opposite to one another, and capable to receive a Hand; make a Bottom of the same Clay, which may reflect the Heat.
1791 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 81 175 He now stops the port hole in the door [of the furnace] at which he had introduced his tools, and applies a fierce flame for 6 or 8 minutes.
1858 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 3 Dec. 32/2 There is an airhole in each back corner [of a roasting furnace], called a porthole.
1871 J. T. Trowbridge Lawrence's Adventures iii. 54 Lawrence, shielding his eyes with his hand, advanced to one of the port-holes, and saw what seemed a pot of liquid fire within.
1997 S. Megy et al. in P. Fauchais Progress Plasma Processing Materials 468 On the roof, there are a port hole (0 ~ 100mm.) in the center for a cathode assembly, and three auxiliary holes.
c. Australian and New Zealand. An aperture in the wall of a shearing shed through which shorn sheep are passed into a counting-out pen.Sometimes also applied to the chute or ramp into the counting-out pen; see quot. 1982.
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the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > sheep-farming > sheep-shearing > [noun] > shearing-shed > hole through wall
porthole1882
shoot1900
1882 A. S. Armstrong & G. O. Campbell Austral. Sheep Husbandry xv. 175 Upon the opposite side of the shearing board, ‘port-holes’, or small doorways, are made (one for each shearer), through which the sheep are turned when shorn.
1933 Press (Christchurch, N.Z.) 30 Sept. 15/7 Counting out pens. Each shearer has his own and passes his sheep through a porthole into his, so that each man's tally may be counted.
1956 G. Bowen Wool Away! (ed. 2) iii. 43 A lot of time and effort can be wasted in switching off and kicking sheep out the porthole.
1982 J. S. Gunn in Austral. Lang. Res. Centre Occas. Papers (Sydney Univ.) 20 7 The chute (ramp) and porthole (opening to the ramp) were once quite distinct but soon carelessly confused.
d. Archaeology. A hole in a slab or adjacent slabs of stone, forming the entrance to a tomb or other chamber.
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the world > life > death > disposal of corpse > burial > grave or burial-place > types of tomb > [noun] > hole in tomb wall to allow passage of body
porthole1928
the world > time > relative time > the past > history or knowledge about the past > [noun] > archaeology > built structures > parts of
raft1897
porthole1928
1928 H. Peake & H. J. Fleure Steppe & Sown ii. 24 The circular hole, or porthole as it has been called, is a usual feature [of stone cists near Tzarevskaya], and occurs elsewhere.
1940 Proc. Prehistoric Soc. 6 133 Problems associated with the nature and origin of portholes in megalithic tombs in Europe.
1958 G. Daniel Megalith Builders W. Europe ii. 44 Port-holes occur in southern Iberia and in a small number of tombs in France and Britain, as well as in the Gallery Graves of southern Sweden.
1988 Man 23 548 The provision of internal constrictions within the tomb, in the form of septal slabs or portholes, has usually been interpreted as a means of restricting access.
3. A port (port n.3 5a) in a steam engine. Now rare.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > machines which impart power > engine > steam engine > [noun] > steam > aperture for
scape-pipe1838
eduction1839
nozzle1839
port1839
exhaust1848
porthole1854
1854 Sci. Amer. 8 July 342/3 [I claim] the form and operation of the induction valves..closing the port holes on a circle section against the water after it passes them.
1889 P. N. Hasluck Model Engineer's Handybk. 27 On turning the fly-wheel the crank draws the piston-rod out and inclines the cylinder sideways, bringing the port-hole to the left.
1913 L. White Catskill Water Supply N.Y. City 689 In one position the valve allows air to enter through port holes to the space above the piston cylinder.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Diploblastica > phylum Coelenterata > [noun] > class Anthozoa Actinozoa > order Zoantharia > suborder Actiniaria > member of > opening in body
cinclis1861
porthole1897
1897 T. J. Parker & W. A. Haswell Text-bk. Zool. I. 188 Many Sea-anemones possess curious organs of offence called acontia. These..can be protruded through minute apertures in the column, called ‘port-holes’ or cinclides.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
porthole shutter n.
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1862 G. Welles Let. 20 Sept. in Official Rec. Union & Confederate Navies War of Rebellion (U.S. Naval War Rec. Office) (1905) 1st Ser. XIX. 319 I have respectfully to report the repairs of this vessel completed, including the machinery and boilers and the plating of four porthole shutters.
1892 E. Reeves Homeward Bound 95 We now find the advantage of the port-hole shutters.
1917 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 7 Oct. (Mag.) 8/1 We turned off the electric lights and pushed aside a porthole shutter.
C2.
porthole cist n. Archaeology a stone chamber or coffin entered through a porthole (sense 2d).
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1939 V. G. Childe Dawn European Civilization (ed. 3) ix. 168 Forssander seems inclined to explain Pontic elements in Central Europe by a migration from the Caucasus of the makers of Globular Amphoræ who would also have brought the idea of the porthole cist and the pit-cave tombs.
1973 Current Anthropol. 14 440/1 The usual run of dolmens, porthole cists, and menhirs.
porthole slab n. Archaeology a stone slab with a circular hole, forming an entrance to a tomb or other chamber; cf. sense 2d.
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1946 Man 46 97 Porthole slabs are admissable as indices of megalithic architecture.
1983 Macmillan Dict. Archaeol. 402/2 Port-hole slab, a stone slab with a usually circular hole, or two adjacent slabs each with a semi-circular hole, most often found in megalithic tombs, from western Europe to India.
porthole stone n. Archaeology = porthole slab n.
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1939 V. G. Childe Dawn European Civilization (ed. 3) xii. 206 A porthole stone often enhances the resemblance of a built tomb's doorway to the entry into a natural or artificial cave.
1956 V. G. Childe Short Introd. Archaeol. iv. 74 A port-hole stone is a slab, forming one end of a megalithic tomb or interrupting the entrance passage, in which has been neatly carved a round or sub-rectangular aperture through which access to the chamber might be obtained.
porthole window n. a small circular window resembling a ship's porthole.
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1708 E. Hatton New View London I. ii. 172/1 It has a camerated Roof, beautifully adorned with Arches of Fret-work, bet[wee]n each of which is a Panel of Crocket-work, and Fret-work, and a Port-hole Window.
a1891 H. Melville Billy Budd xviii, in Wks. (1924) XIII. 80 At each end of the oblong space were two sashed port-hole windows easily convertible back into embrasures for short carronades.
1991 M. Ripley Angel Touch (BNC) 88 Lisabeth and Fenella..were riveted to the porthole window like two old men sharing a What the Butler Saw machine.
Derivatives
ˈportholed adj. provided with a porthole or portholes (in various senses).
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > parts of vessels > other parts of body of vessel > [adjective] > fashioned with (a) porthole(s)
portholed1854
the world > time > relative time > the past > history or knowledge about the past > [adjective] > of or relating to archaeology > relating to artefacts > relating to specific artefacts
portholed1854
rouletted1895
rostro-carinate1912
pressure-flaked1923
1854 W. H. Hurlbert Gan-Eden vii. 74 The cars had a familiar look, having been built in those long port-holed edifices.
1938 Antiquity 12 302 Some of these (e.g. Züschen, Fritzlar) have a portholed septal slab.
1984 M. A. Jarman Dancing nightly in Tavern 63 Port-holed shanties perch a line between eelgrass and air.
2002 San Diego Bus. Jrnl. (Nexis) 7 Jan. 28 There are portholed diving helmets and '30s-era cameras.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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