Pl. 7–9 emporiums, 9 emporia. (See also EMPORY.) [a. L. emporium, a. Gr. ἐμπόριον, f. ἔμπορος merchant, f. ἐν in + vbl. stem πορ-, περ- to journey.]
1. A place in which merchandise is collected or traded in. Often as applied to towns or countries: A principal center of commerce, ‘a mart.’
1586. J. Hooker, Girald. Irel., in Holinsh., II. 12/2. A Scotch Town is the cheefest emporium in a manner of all that land.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. iii. III. (1651), 326. Paris, London, small Cottages in Cæsars time, now most noble Emporiums.
1692. Ray, Dissol. World, II. v. (1732), 253. The best Emporium and Mart of this Part of the World.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., IV. ii. (1869), II. 27. The emporium, or general market, for the goods of all the different countries whose trade it carries on.
1805. Luccock, Nat. Wool, 44. Perhaps they [the Italian cities] would have remained much longer the emporia of the world.
1869. Buckle, Civiliz., III. v. 340. Emporiums of commerce.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 8. Egypt … deigned to open (B.C. 550) an emporium at Naucratis for the ships and commerce of the Greeks.
† b. In the East Indies: A ‘factory’ of European merchants. Obs.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., II. xxxiv. 20. Half a League farther up … the Dutch Emporium stands.
c. Pompously applied to: A shop, warehouse.
1839. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xxxii. Emporiums of splendid dresses.
1859. Sala, Tw. round Clock, 157. But I find the shop now expanded into a magnificent emporium.
2. transf. and fig.
1839. Murchison, Silur. Syst., I. xxxv. 474. The rich emporium of the Scotch coal measures.
1852. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), III. xiii. 241. Her house in London was a perfect emporium of escaped state criminals.
1865. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VIII. lxvi. 235. She [Alexandria] was an emporium for the interchange of ideas and speculations.
† 3. (See quot.) Obs.
1721–1800. Bailey, Emporium, the common sensory of the brain.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp.
