Port,

meaning larboard or left side, is an abbreviation of porta il timone (carry the helm). Porting arms is carrying them on the left hand.

“To heel to port” is to lean on the left side (Saxon, hyldan, to incline). “To lurch to port” is to leap or roll over on the left side (Welsh, llercian).

“She gave a heel, and then a lurch to port,

And, going down head-foremost, sunk in short.”

Byron: Don Juan.

Port. An air of music; martial music. Hence Tytler says, “I have never been able to meet with any of the ports here referred to” (Dissertation on Scotch Music). The word is Gaelic.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.