maidan

Definition

A marketplace or other open space in or by a city or town; an esplanade.

Etymology

From Hindustani میدان (medān) / मैदान (maidān), and its source, Persian میدان (meydân, maydān, “town-square or central place of gathering”), from Arabic مَيْدَان (maydān), itself an Iranian borrowing (see the Arabic entry for more), from Proto-Iranian *madyānah, from *mádyah (“middle”), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *mádʰyas, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos. Compare Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬜𐬌𐬌𐬀 (maⁱδiia), Sanskrit मध्य (madhya), Latin medius.

Example Sentences

• "Inland, the prospect alters. There is an oval maidan, and a long sallow hospital."
• "Below on the amorphous brown-violet meidan by the railway station […]."
• "M. Crawford a gallop on the green maidan"