port

English port comes from Old English port, borrowed from Latin portus ('port, harbor'), which traces back to Proto-Indo-European *pértus, meaning 'crossing.'

The nautical direction sense arose by at least the 1500s: ancient ships steered with an oar on the right side, so they had to dock with their left side facing the wharf — and that side came to be called 'port.'

Port is a distant doublet of ford, both descending from the same PIE root for crossing a passage of water.