English
esplanade
Esplanade comes from French esplanade ‘clear, level space’.
- Frenchc. 1600–presentesplanade‘clear, level space’
- Englishtodayesplanade
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Frenchc. 1600–presentesplanade‘clear, level space’
- Englishtodayesplanade
The story
1590s, from French esplanade (‘clear, level space’), from either Spanish esplanada (explanada), form of esplanar (‘to flatten, to make level’) or Italian spianata, form of spianare (of the same meaning), both from Latin explānāre, from which English explain; see also plain (‘level area, to flatten’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- ‘flat’
field, floor, palm, planet, clan, archipelago, fluke, parma, playa, placenta, palatine, flounder, lech, polonium, pelagic, placate, implacable, veld, flay, floe, plantar, purdah, planta, 46 more
through Proto-Italic *plānos
plane, planar, unexplainable, explainable, 11 more
through Latin plānus ‘level, flat, even’
through Latin explānō ‘to flatten’
Today it means
noun A clear space between a citadel and the nearest houses of the town.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / French esplanade / esplanade