caravansary

noun

Etymology: Anglicization of caravanserai, influenced by -ary, -ery (suffix denoting ‘place of’), as if meaning “place of caravans” by reanalysis as caravan + -s- (interfix) + -ary, -ery. Cognates * German Karawanserei

1. Alternative spelling of caravanserai.

   “A dervise travelling through Tartary, being arrived at the town of Balk, went into the king's palace by mistake, as thinking it to be a public inn, or caravansary. […] It happened that the king himself passed through the gallery during this debate, and, smiling at the mistake of the dervise, asked him how he could possibly be so dull as not to distinguish a palace from a caravansary? […] 'Ah, Sir,' said the dervise, a house that changes its inhabitants so often, and receives such a perpetual succession of guests, is not a palace, but a caravansary.'”

   “But not in sumptuous Caravansary / The adventurer idles there, / Nor satiates wonder with her pomp and wealth; […]”