Portus Cale

Portus Cale (Latinised version for "Port of Cale", original Celtic name Callaici, Cale) was an ancient town and port in current-day northern Portugal, in the area of today's Grande Porto. The name of the town eventually influenced the name of the subsequent country Portugal.

Cale was an early settlement located at the mouth of the Douro River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean in the north of what is now Portugal.

The mainstream explanation for the name is that it is an ethnonym derived from the Castro people, also known as the Callaeci, Gallaeci or Gallaecia, a people who occupied the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. The names Callaici and Cale are the origin of today's Gaia, Galicia, and the -gal in Portugal. The meaning of Cale or Calle is very likely a derivation of the Celtic word for port which would confirm very old links to pre-Roman, Celtic languages. Compare today's Irish caladh or Scottish cala, both meaning port.

The medieval Scottish historian Hector Boece thought the name Portugal was derived from Porto Gatelli, the name Gatelo gave to Braga when he settled there, while others say he gave it to Porto.

Other historians have argued that Greeks were the first to settle Cale and that the name derives from the Greek word Καλλις kallis, 'beautiful', referring to the beauty of the Douro valley. Others have hypothesized that the word Cale came from the Latin word for 'warm' (Portus Cale thus meaning 'warm port').

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