Etymology

terreplein

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Today it means: The sloping earthen embankment behind a defensive wall. Full definition →

Italian terrapieno ← French terreplein
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The story

  1. French · borrowed fromterreplein
  2. Italian · borrowed fromterrapieno“earth-fill(ed)”
  3. English todayterreplein

Originally a borrowing of Italian terrapieno (“earth-fill(ed)”), later altered after the model of French terreplein (now terre-plein). Its former misspellings arose from confusion of the second element of the name with Italian piano or French plain, plane (“flat, level”) based on the appearance of the earth-filled central platforms of walls.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.