| OCR Text |
Show "Esplanade" and "boulevard." Doth "esplnnudo" and "boulevard" are military terms by origin. The original "boulevard" was h bulwark or horizontal part of the ra'"uart and an "esplanade" was origin" Hy tho glacis or slope of tho counter" rp of a fortified for-tified place. A writer I" 0 years ago noted that the word Muliivard was "now chiefly taken for tho void spaco between the glacis of t 'tadel nd tho first houses of a i- .vn." Henco Its extension to other "void spaces" suitable for promenading. Tho old French "esplanade" wn defined by Cotgrave as "a planing, leveling, evening even-ing of ways," from Latin "explanare." to smooth or flutten out, whence the English words "explain" and "explanation." |
