parterre · noun — A flowerbed, particularly an elevated one. It carries an Arena rating of 1611, earned across 11 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, parterre ranks #1,257 of 17,162 for Most Elegant Words, #2,439 of 17,197 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #3,199 of 17,160 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #3,395 of 17,166 for Most Vivid Words.
parterre is pronounced /pɑːˈtɛə/.
Why “parterre” is a great word
A level piece of ground, either planted as a formal ornamental garden of patterned flowerbeds or serving as the ground-floor seating section in a theater. From the French parterre, from the phrase par terre ("on the ground"), from par ("by, on") + terre ("ground, earth"), the latter from Latin terra ("earth, land"). First attested in English in the 1630s. Unlike a "border," which is a linear fringe of planting, or the "orchestra," which is the prime seating immediately before the stage, a parterre is either a deliberate geometric composition meant to be viewed from above or the democratic plain of the audience floor. It is the intricate embroidery of boxwood and crushed stone seen from a palace window, the murmured anticipation rising from rows of plush seats before the curtain rises, and the fundamental idea that all art, horticultural or theatrical, begins at ground level—a canvas of earth or a plane of faces, equally waiting to be arranged and astonished.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
Borrowed from French parterre (“on the ground”), from par (“on”) + terre (“ground”).
noun
- A flowerbed, particularly an elevated one.e.g.“The window opened towards a most lovely garden, whose smooth turf and gorgeous parterres swept down to the river.” — 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Sir Robert Walpole and House”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 238:
- A garden with paths between such flowerbeds.
- A part of the section of theater seats located on the ground floor, on the same level as the orchestra.
- A part of the section of theater seats located on the ground floor, on the same level as the orchestra.; The part of the ground-floor section nearest the orchestra and the stage; the stalls.
- A part of the section of theater seats located on the ground floor, on the same level as the orchestra.; The part of the ground-floor section behind the stalls and underneath the galleries; the pit.
- That part of a theater audience seated in the parterre, sometimes regarded as belonging to a lower social class.
- An apartment balcony.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
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