1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Entrepôt

ENTREPÔT (a French word, from the Lat. interpositum, that which is placed between), a storehouse or magazine for the temporary storage of goods, provisions, &c.; also a place where goods, which are not allowed to pass into a country duty free, are stored under the superintendence of the custom house authorities till they are re-exported. In a looser sense, any town which has a considerable distributive trade is called an entrepôt. The word is also used attributively to indicate the kind of trade carried on in such towns.