Etymology

boulevard

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Today it means: A broad, well-paved and landscaped thoroughfare. Full definition →

French boulevard ← Middle French boulevard ← Middle High German bolewerc
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The story

  1. Middle Dutch · derived frombolwerk“bulwark, bastion”
  2. Middle High German · derived frombolewerc
  3. Middle French · derived fromboulevard
  4. French · borrowed fromboulevard
  5. English todayboulevard

Borrowed from French boulevard, from Middle French boulevard, bollevart, boulevars, bolevers, bollewerc (“rampart”), from Middle High German bolewerc, bolwerc (modern German Bollwerk) or Middle Dutch bolwerk (“bulwark, bastion”). Doublet of bulwark; more at bole, work.

Words from the same roots

Middle Dutchbolwerk all →

bulwark

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.