Greek for "ford of the ox," so named as the maiden Io, after having been a) shapechanged into a cow by jealous Hera, b) raped by enterprising Zeus in the form of a bull and c) plagued by stinging insects managed to swim across it (the narrowest ford in the Sea of Marmara) in flight from the aforementionned bugs.

Bos"po*rus (?), n. [L.]

A strait or narrow sea between two seas, or a lake and a seas; as, the Bosporus (formerly the Thracian Bosporus) or Strait of Constantinople, between the Black Sea and Sea of Marmora; the Cimmerian Bosporus, between the Black Sea and Sea of Azof.

[Written also Bosphorus.]

 

© Webster 1913.