the.com/plaza
The empty space where cities admit they need somewhere to gather and pretend they aren't lonely.
means An open public square or paved space in a town or city, often surrounded by buildings and used for gathering; also a name for shopping centers and other open commercial areas.
from From Spanish plaza, "public square," which traces back through Vulgar Latin plattea to Latin platea, "broad street or open space" — itself borrowed from Greek plateia (hodos), "broad (way)," from platys, "flat, broad." That same broad-and-flat root runs through a whole family of relatives: Italian piazza, French place, and the English place all descend from the same Latin platea, making a plaza, a piazza, and a parking place distant cousins under the skin.
- old roots
- From Latin platea, a broad open street.
- sister words
- Piazza, place, and pizza share the lineage.
- power center
- Roman forums were plazas running an empire.
- shopping shift
- Americans turned the public square into parking lots.
- protest stage
- Tahrir and Tiananmen made plazas history's loudest rooms.
plaza mayor madrid — central square in madrid, spain, built 1580-1619, surrounded by 237 residential apartments
plaza de armas lima — main square in lima, peru, founded 1535, surrounded by the cathedral and presidential palace
plaza san marcos venice — famous square in venice, italy, only dry piazza in the city, flooded regularly by acqua alta