Port Moresby
2
5.4
- proper noun
- The prime minister visited Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, to discuss trade agreements.
Examples
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So we're gonna sail across from Suva, Fiji... to Port Moresby, which is the port of entry.
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Nov. 3, 1942: Pushing through New Guinea jungles in a jeep, General Douglas MacArthur inspects the positions and movements of Allied Forces, who would push the Japanese away from Port Moresby and back over the Owen Stanley Mountain range.
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I got it at Port Moresby.
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My Uncle Lloyd went from Port Moresby up through the island campaigns, changing to the Army after the war and spending 30 years overall.
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Well, here we are in not-so-beautiful Port Moresby.
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Like the Port Moresby Coliseum.
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- Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
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August 3, 1942: After hammering Port Moresby for two days, Japanese bombers finally sank this Australian transport, which sent up a cloud of smoke.
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Dad worked his way up from Brisbane, Charleville, and Port Moresby to the Philippines with fighter ordinance.
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Traveling to Port Moresby allowed us to experience the rich local culture and beautiful landscapes.
Surface Forms
Morphology
port + Moresby
The form follows the productive place-name pattern 'Port + [proper name]' so a learner who knows 'port' will infer this is a harbor or town called Moresby; the proper name 'Moresby' need not be known for that inference. While the specific information that it is the capital of Papua New Guinea is lexical knowledge beyond the constituents, the basic sense 'a port/city named Moresby' is directly derivable from the parts.
Etymology
Port Moresby comes from Captain John Moresby, who found the harbour and named it after his father, Admiral Fairfax Moresby. The word Port shows it began as a sea harbour, so today Port Moresby means the city by that harbour.