Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.
MALL
plaza, mall, center, shopping mall, shopping center, shopping centre
(noun) mercantile establishment consisting of a carefully landscaped complex of shops representing leading merchandisers; usually includes restaurants and a convenient parking area; a modern version of the traditional marketplace; “a good plaza should have a movie house”; “they spent their weekends at the local malls”
promenade, mall
(noun) a public area set aside as a pedestrian walk
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
mall (countable and uncountable, plural malls)
(chiefly, North America, Australia, New Zealand) A pedestrianised street, especially a shopping precinct. [from 20th c.]
An enclosed shopping centre. [from 20th c.]
(obsolete) An alley where the game of pall mall was played. [17th-19th c.]
A public walk; a level shaded walk, a promenade. [from 18th c.]
A heavy wooden mallet or hammer used in the game of pall mall. [from 17th c.]
(obsolete) The game of polo. [17th c.]
(obsolete) An old game played with malls or mallets and balls; pall mall. [17th-19th c.]
Verb
mall (third-person singular simple present malls, present participle malling, simple past and past participle malled)
to beat with a mall, or mallet; to beat with something heavy; to bruise
to build up with the development of shopping malls
(informal) to shop at the mall
Source: Wiktionary
Mall, n. [Written also maul.] Etym: [OE. malle, F. mail, L. malleus. Cf. Malleus.]
1. A large heavy wooden beetle; a mallet for driving anything with force; a maul. Addison.
2. A heavy blow. [Obs.] Spenser.
3. An old game played with malls or mallets and balls. See Pall-mall. Cotton.
4. A place where the game of mall was played. Hence: A public walk; a level shaded walk. Part of the area was laid out in gravel walks, and planted with elms; and these convenient and frequented walks obtained the name of the City Mall. Southey.
Mall, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Malled; p. pr. & vb. n. Malling.] Etym: [Cf. OF. mailler. See Mall beetle, and cf. Malleate.]
Definition: To beat with a mall; to beat with something heavy; to bruise; to maul.
Mall, n. Etym: [LL. mallum a public assembly; cf. OHG. mahal assembly, transaction; akin to AS. mæ, me, assembly, m to speak, Goth. mapl market place.]
Definition: Formerly, among Teutonic nations, a meeting of the notables of a state for the transaction of public business, such meeting being a modification of the ancient popular assembly. Hence: (a) A court of justice. (b) A place where justice is administered. (c) A place where public meetings are held. Councils, which had been as frequent as diets or malls, ceased. Milman.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
23 January 2025
LEFT
(adjective) being or located on or directed toward the side of the body to the west when facing north; “my left hand”; “left center field”; “the left bank of a river is bank on your left side when you are facing downstream”
Coffee Trivia
