emporium

Meaning

1. (also, figuratively) A city or region which is a major trading centre; also, a place within a city for commerce and trading; a marketplace.
2. (also, figuratively) A shop that offers a wide variety of goods for sale; a department store; (with a descriptive word) a shop specializing in particular goods.
3. (historical) A business set up to enable foreign traders to engage in commerce in a country; a factory (now the more common term).
4. (broadly, obsolete) The brain.

Synonyms

department store

🏬

shop

mart

bazaar

mall

market

shopping center

store

warehouse

bazar

bazzar

shopping centre

business center

forum

shopping district

commercial center

boutique

Translations

emporio

Handelsplatz

emporio

dükkân

αγορά

grand magasin

🏬

warenhuis

🏬

emporium

εμπορείο

εμπορικό

marché

entrepôt

Kaufhaus

🏬

centre commercial

empori

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ɛmˈpɔːɹ.i.əm/

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin emporium (“trading station; business district in a city; market town”), from Ancient Greek ἐμπόριον (empórion, “factory, trading station; market”), from ἔμπορος (émporos, “merchant, trader; traveller”) + -ιον (-ion, suffix forming nouns). ἔμπορος is derived from ἐμ- (em-) (variant of ἐν- (en-, prefix meaning ‘in; within’)) + πόρος (póros, “journey; passageway”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through; to carry forth”)), modelled after ἐν πόρῳ (en pórōi, “at sea; en route”).
Sense 4 (“the brain”) alludes to the organ as the place where many nerves or nerve impulses meet.