boulevard

boulevard
/bool"euh vahrd', booh"leuh-/, n.
1. a broad avenue in a city, usually having areas at the sides or center for trees, grass, or flowers.
2. Upper Midwest. a strip of lawn between a sidewalk and the curb.
[1765-75; < F, MF (orig. Picard, Walloon): rampart, avenue built on the site of a razed rampart < MD bol(le)werc; see BULWARK]
Syn. See street.

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Broad landscaped avenue that typically permits several lanes of vehicular traffic as well as pedestrian walkways.

The earliest boulevards originally followed the city walls (the word originally meant "bulwark") and were built in the ancient Middle East, especially at Antioch. In Paris, straight and geometrically precise boulevards were incorporated into design principles taught at the École des Beaux-Arts, and they form a prominent feature of the city. Similar boulevards are found in other cities such as Washington, D.C. Formal curving boulevards are a feature of such cities as Vienna and Prague.

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      broad landscaped avenue typically permitting several lanes of vehicular traffic as well as pedestrian walkways. The earliest boulevards were built in the ancient Middle East, especially at Antioch.

      Commonly a major axis in a city, the boulevard permits long picturesque views, the foliage along the boulevard minimizing peripheral visual distraction. Straight and geometrically precise boulevards were a hallmark of the design principles taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, while winding avenues are more common to the naturalistic schools of city planning that have come into being since the latter part of the 19th century.

      Formal, geometric, curving boulevards are found at the site of many former fortifications such as Vienna and Prague. In other cases, they have been deliberately included in a plan that has been imposed on an area, for example, the streets leading into the Place Charles de Gaulle (formerly Place d'Étoile) in Paris and the broad avenues of Washington, D.C.

      In Italy, a wide avenue with landscaped edges is called a corso or largo.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Boulevard — Boulevard …   Deutsch Wörterbuch

  • boulevard — [ bulvar ] n. m. • 1803; bolevers « ouvrage de madriers » puis « rempart », av. 1365; du moy. néerl. bolwerc 1 ♦ Large voie faisant le tour d une ville (sur l emplacement des anciens remparts). Boulevards extérieurs. Boulevard périphérique. 2 ♦… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Boulevard — (French, from nl. Bolwerk ndash; bolwark, meaning bastion) has several generally accepted meanings. It was first introduced in the French language in 1435 as boloard and has since been altered into boulevard.In this case, as a type of road, a… …   Wikipedia

  • boulevard — ou, orthographe qu admet aussi l académie, boulevart (bou le var ; le d ni le t ne se lient jamais : un boulevard élevé, dites : un boule var élevé ; au plur. l s ne se lie pas : des bou levar élevés ; cependant plusieurs disent : des bou levar z …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

  • Boulevard — Жанр поп музыка Годы 1983 1994 Страна …   Википедия

  • Boulevard — Sm breite Straße erw. fremd. Erkennbar fremd (16. Jh.) Entlehnung. Entlehnt aus frz. boulevard m., das seinerseits aus ndl. bolwerk (Bollwerk) entlehnt ist. Es handelt sich um die breiten Straßen an der Stelle früherer Festungswälle, besonders in …   Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen sprache

  • Boulevard — (fr., spr. Bul wahr), 1) Bollwerk, Wall; 2) Spatziergänge auf dem Walle, od. auf der Stelle, wo Wall u. Graben ehemals befindlich waren, angelegt; bes. in Paris (s.d.) Von diesen B. s ist bes. berühmt der Boulevard des Italiens (spr. B. des… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • boulevard — • boulevard, aveny, boulevard • esplanad, boulevard, promenad …   Svensk synonymlexikon

  • Boulevard — Bou le*vard , n. [F. boulevard, boulevart, fr. G. bollwerk. See {Bulwark}.] [1913 Webster] 1. Originally, a bulwark or rampart of fortification or fortified town. [1913 Webster] 2. A public walk or street occupying the site of demolished… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • boulevard — 1769, from Fr. boulevard (15c.), originally top surface of a military rampart, from a garbled attempt to adopt M.Du. bolwerc wall of a fortification (see BULWARK (Cf. bulwark)) into French, which lacks a w . The original notion is of a promenade… …   Etymology dictionary

  • Boulevard — Boulevard: Die Bezeichnung für »breite ‹Ring›straße« wurde im späten 16. Jh. aus gleichbed. frz. boulevard entlehnt. Dies stammt seinerseits aus mniederl. bolwerc, das dt. ↑ Bollwerk entspricht. – Die Ringstraßen verlaufen oft im Zuge alter… …   Das Herkunftswörterbuch

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