1298.—"The Great Kaan sends his commissioners to the Province to select four or five hundred ... of the most beautiful young women, according to the scale of beauty enjoined upon them. The commissioners ... assemble all the girls of the province, in presence of appraisers appointed for the purpose. These carefully survey the points of each girl.... They will then set down some as estimated at 16 carats, some at 17, 18, 20, or more or less, according to the sum of the beauties or defects of each. And whatever standard the Great Kaan may have fixed for those that are to be brought to him, whether it be 20 carats or 21, the commissioners select the required number from those who have attained to that standard."—Marco Polo, 2nd ed. i. 350-351.
1673.—"A stone of one Carrack is worth 10l."—Fryer, 214.
CARAVAN, s. P. karwān; a convoy of travellers. The Ar. ḳāfila is more generally used in India. The word is found in French as early as the 13th century (Littré). A quotation below shows that the English transfer of the word to a wheeled conveyance for travellers (now for goods also) dates from the 17th century. The abbreviation van in this sense seems to have acquired rights as an English word, though the altogether analogous bus is still looked on as slang.
c. 1270.—"Meanwhile the convoy (la caravana) from Tortosa ... armed seven vessels in such wise that any one of them could take a galley if it ran alongside."—Chronicle of James of Aragon, tr. by Foster, i. 379.
1330.—"De hac civitate recedens cum caravanis et cum quadam societate, ivi versus Indiam Superiorem."—Friar Odoric, in Cathay, &c., ii. App. iii.
1384.—"Rimonda che l'avemo, vedemo venire una grandissima carovana di cammelli e di Saracini, che recavano spezierie delle parti d'India."—Frescobaldi, 64.
c. 1420.—"Is adolescens ab Damasco Syriae, ubi mercaturae gratiâ erat, perceptâ prius Arabum linguâ, in coetu mercatorum—hi sexcenti erant—quam vulgo caroanam dicunt...."—N. Conti, in Poggius de Varietate Fortunae.
1627.—"A Caravan is a convoy of souldiers for the safety of merchants that trauell in the East Countreys."—Minshew, 2nd ed. s.v.
1674.—"Caravan or Karavan (Fr. caravane) a Convoy of Souldiers for the safety of Merchants that travel by Land. Also of late corruptly used with us for a kind of Waggon to carry passengers to and from London."—Glossographia, &c., by J. E.
CARAVANSERAY, s. P. karwānsarāī; a [Serai] (q.v.) for the reception of [Caravans] (q.v.).