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esplanade

Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 9:11 am
by William Hupy
Last night while riding my bicycle I recalled that several years ago I had ridden my horse on the wide grassy stretch that separates the roadway from the sidewalk and I was wracking my brain to come up with the name for that wide grassy open area. I do not know what provoked this word: esplanade. I like saying this word and will probably drive my significant other wild by overusing it now.

Re: esplanade

Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 11:30 am
by Slava
I'm not so sure that esplanade is the right word. When I looked it up, it seemed to be the thing you walk on, not something between the road and sidewalk.

Comments anyone?

Re: esplanade

Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:27 pm
by Perry Lassiter
We always called that space the neutral ground, since the city owned it. We did mow it however. I think of the word meaning a significant walk, such as the top of a levee or a similar green space provided for folks, especially dandies, to parade on.

New Orleans has a great street called Esplenade that marks the edge of the French Quarter and continues out to City Park, bordering several neighborhoods along the way. A great part of an architechtural tour if you're down that way.