cothon

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κώθων (kṓthōn), rendering a Phoenician term meaning something like "excavated". (Cothon was the name of the island in Carthage's artificial harbor, namesake of the type.)

Noun

cothon (plural cothons)

1. An artificial, protected harbor in a Phoenician city, especially and originally the one in Carthage.
   • 1965, Helen Hill Miller, Sicily and the Western Colonies of Greece, New York: Scribner:

     The cothons at Carthage, during the Punic wars, are said to have held over two hundred ships. The small size of the Motya cothon may be accounted for by  […]

   • 1973, Rivista Di Studi Fenici, volume 1, page 142:

     Cothons - artificial inner harbours, or perhaps rather docks and repair basins - are another architectural feature ascribed to Phoenician and Punic towns […]

   • 1999, Ancient Infrastructure: Remarkable Roads, Mines, Walls, Mounds, Stone Circles : a Catalog of Archeological Anomalies:

     It resembles the Phoenician cothons'.