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Show "Esplanade" and "Boulevard." Doth "esplanade" and "boulevard" nro military terms hy origin. The orWInal "boulevard" was a bulwark ot horizontal part of tho rampart and an "esplanado" was originally tho glacli or slopo of tho counterscarp of a for titled place. A writer 200 years ago noted that tho word boulevard was "now chiefly taken for tho void space botween tho glacis of a citadel and tho first houses of a town." Hence Its extension to other "void spaces" suitable for promenading. Tho old French "esplnnado" was deflner by Cotgravo as "a planing, lovcllng, evening even-ing of ways," from Latin "oxplanaro," to smooth or flnttcn out, whonco the English words "explain" and "expla-I "expla-I nation." |