mall

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /mɔːl/, /mæl/, US /mɔːl/, /mɑːl/^[1]

Etymology

It is a shortening of pall-mall,^[2][3][4] the game and the alley it was played in, from obsolete French pallemaille, from Italian pallamaglio, from palla (“ball”) and maglio (“mallet”),^[4][5][6] from Latin malleus (“hammer”) (see maul and mallet),^[5][6] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to crush, grind”).^[5] It was reinforced by French mail, from Old French mail, maul.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The game of pall-mall: 1646;^[7] the alley in which it was played: 1644.^[7] The mallet used in the game is from 1662.^[7][4]

Semantic evolution

The Mall, a broad tree-lined promenade in St James's Park, London, was so called from the 1670s (earlier Maill, 1640s), because it had been an alley for pall-mall,^[5][4][7][3] and London's street Pall Mall began as a pall-mall too.^[6] From it, a sheltered public walk was called a mall from 1737,^[5][4][7] and in some towns the name was adopted for a street.^[7] A street set aside for pedestrians is from 1951, a mall for shopping from 1950 in the United States in Word Origins,^[5][6] and the modern enclosed shopping gallery from 1962 in Etymonline;^[5] Victor Gruen's Northland Center (1954), in Michigan, is often credited as the first modern shopping mall.^[5] Mall rat, someone who hangs around malls, is from 1985.^[5] In Washington, D.C., the Mall is the park between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial.^[8]

Timeline

• 1644 – a pall-mall alley.^[7]
• 1662 – the mallet used in the game.^[7][4]
• 1670s – The Mall in St James's Park.^[5]
• 1737 – a public promenade.^[5][4]
• 1950 – a mall for shopping.^[6]
• 1962 – an enclosed shopping centre.^[5]
• 1985 – mall rat.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A large, usually enclosed shopping centre with shops reached by common walkways.
2. A street lined with shops and closed to traffic.
3. A shady public walk or promenade.
4. (US) A grassy strip dividing a road; a median.

Word family

• pall-mall
• shopping mall
• strip mall

Related words

• maul
• mallet
• malleable

Usage notes

The CEPD notes that the pronunciation /mɔːl/ for a shopping arcade seems to have come into British English from American, despite some resistance from those who prefer /mæl/;^[1] The Mall in London is /mæl/.^[1][7] Mall is also an old spelling of maul, a heavy hammer, still used in Worcestershire and Shropshire dialect.^[9][10]

References

1. ^ a b c Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)