serail

See also: sérail

English

Etymology

From Middle French sérail, from Italian serraglio.

Noun

serail (plural serails)

(now rare) A seraglio.
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], part 1, 2nd edition, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:
  He ſhall be made a chaſte and luſtleſſe Eunuch,
  And in my Sarell tend my Concubines:
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 42, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
  What longing lust would not bee alaid, to see three hundred women at his dispose and pleasure, as hath the Grand Turke in his Seraille?
- 1990, Roy Porter, English Society in the 18th Century, Penguin, published 1991, page 264:
  London teemed with brothels and other pleasure domes such as Mrs Hayes's serail in Pall Mall, whose floor show included a Tahitian “Love Feast’ between twelve nymphs and twelve youths, and naked dancing.

Anagrams

Alires, Israel, Isreal, Lieras, Sailer, Sal Rei, ariels, railes, realis, relais, resail, sailer, serial

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