esplanade

Etymology

It is borrowed from French esplanade,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in French from the 15th century.^[3] The dictionaries disagree about the source of the French word.^[2][5] The OED, Barnhart, Etymonline, Hoad and Weekley take it from Spanish esplanada (“a large level area”),^{[2][4][3][7][8]} a noun use of the feminine past participle of esplanar (“to make level”),^[3][4] and Barnhart allows some influence of Italian spianata.^[4] Merriam-Webster, the American Heritage Dictionary, the Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English, Klein and Collins derive it instead from spianata, a noun use of the feminine past participle of spianare (“to level”);^{[5][9][6][10][11][12]} Etymonline allows this as a possible source or influence.^[3] Skeat took it as formed in French from Old French esplaner (“to level”), with the ending copied from the Italian noun.^[13] Both the Spanish and the Italian verbs go back to Latin explānō (“to make level, flatten”),^{[2][3][9][11]} formed from ex (“out”) and plānus (“flat, level”),^[2][3][4] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *pele- (“flat; to spread”).^[3] The same Latin verb gave explain, so that, as Ayto puts it, esplanade is essentially the same word, but has kept a memory of the literal sense "flatten out".^[14][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

An open, level space: 1591, in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster.^[4][5] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford give the late 16th century, when it denoted an area of flat ground on top of a rampart.^[10][6] The 1891 OED entry, not yet revised, has its first record only in 1681, in the fifth edition of Blount's Glossographia.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It was first a term of fortification.^[3][6][8] In the late 17th and early 18th centuries it was the glacis of the counterscarp, the slope of the parapet of the covered way towards the open country (1696), and an open, level space separating the citadel of a fortress from the town it commanded (1708).^[2][6] Johnson (1755) recorded both, saying that the word had originally meant the glacis but was then taken for the empty space between the glacis of a citadel and the first houses of the town.^[15] From 1682 an esplanade could also be any levelled piece of ground, often one meant as a public walk,^[2] and in gardening, from 1818, a grass plot.^[2] Weekley compared the passage of boulevard from fortification to promenade.^[8] Ayto calls its use for the promenade of a seaside town a comparatively recent development.^[14] In Connecticut, Merriam-Webster records it for a grassed and landscaped median strip on a highway.^[5]

Timeline

• 1591 – an open, level space.^[4][5]
• late 16th century – an area of flat ground on top of a rampart.^[6][10]
• 1682 – a levelled piece of ground, often one meant as a public promenade.^[2]
• 1696 – the glacis of the counterscarp.^[2]
• 1708 – an open, level space between the citadel of a fortress and the town.^[2][6]
• 1818 – in gardening, a grass plot.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long, level open stretch of paved or grassy ground for walking or driving, especially along the seafront or beside water: They strolled along the esplanade after dinner.^[12][5][6]
2. (fortification) An open space between a citadel and the nearest houses of a town, leaving attackers exposed to the defenders' fire.^{[5][2][6][12]}
3. (fortification) The glacis of the counterscarp.^[5][2][6]
4. (Connecticut) A grassed and landscaped median strip on a highway.^[5]

Related words

• explain
• plain
• plane
• explanation

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.