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Seraglio


A seraglio (/səˈrælj/ sə-RAL-yoh or /səˈrɑːlj/ sə-RAHL-yoh) or serail is the sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in an Ottoman household. The term harem is a generic term for domestic spaces reserved for women in a Muslim family, which can also refer to the women themselves.

The etymology of this Italian word is unclear. The Italian Treccani dictionary gives two derivations: one from Turkish saray, from Persian saraʾi (سرای‎), meaning palace, or the enclosed courts for the wives and concubines of the harem of a house or palace, the other (in the sense of enclosure for wild animals) from Late Latin: serraculum, derived from serare, to close, which comes from sera, a door-bar.


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