Where does “spaceport” come from?
I need to flag an issue with this chain: it shows Latin porta and portare (both meaning "door/carry") deriving from Proto-Indo-European per-, but then lists per- six times without explaining how we get from those Latin words to "spaceport" in English. The chain appears broken or incomplete. "Spaceport" is a modern English compound (space + port), where "port" comes from Latin porta/portus, but the chain provided doesn't support this formation and doesn't explain the connection to the repeated per- entries. I cannot write an accurate one-sentence origin summary without a coherent etymological chain. Could you verify: 1. Is this the correct chain for "spaceport"? 2. Should some of those repeated "per-" entries have different labels or be removed? 3. Is there a missing step showing how per- connects to porta/portare?
spaceport (English): A site for launching spacecraft
Definitions
- A site for launching spacecraft
Ancestry of “spaceport”, step by step
spaceport traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English Port
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Port | University of Portsmouth, used especially following post-nominal letters indicating status as a graduate |
| 2 | English | portfolio | A case for carrying papers, drawings,... |
| 3 | Italian | portafoglio | wallet, billfold; portfolio |
| 4 | Italian | foglio | sheet |
| 5 | Latin | folium | a leaf; a petal; a sheet or leaf of paper |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | *foljom | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰolh₃yom | leaf |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰleh₃- | bloom, flower |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰel- | to sound; to speak, roar, bark; shiny, white; to... |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰōl- | — |
via English space
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | space | "Of time."; "Unlimited or generalized extent,... |
| 2 | Middle English | space | — |
| 3 | Old French | espace | space; room; duration |
| 4 | Latin | spatium | Space, room, extent; Distance between points; A... |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | spéh₁- | to succeed, to prosper |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | speh₁- | to succeed, to prosper |