5 July 2018
parterre
[pahr-tair]
noun
1. Also called parquet circle. the rear section of seats, and sometimes also the side sections, of the main floor of a theater, concert hall, or opera house.
2. an ornamental arrangement of flower beds of different shapes and sizes.
Origin of parterre
1630-1640; < French, noun use of phrase par terre on the ground. See per, terra
Related forms
parterred, adjective
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for parterre
Historical Examples
Then, on emerging from the wood, on again reaching the parterre, he raised his eyes.
The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete
Emile Zola
But she resumed: ‘Would you like to go into the flower-garden, the parterre ?
Abbe Mouret’s Transgression
Emile Zola
His evenings were largely spent in the parterre of the opera.
The False Chevalier
William Douw Lighthall
And he returned through the parterre with slow and melancholy steps.
The Man in the Iron Mask
Alexandre Dumas, Pere
And again the working bees, down in the parterre, attracted his attention.
The History of Sir Richard Calmady
Lucas Malet
Nor were the dull-coloured occupants of the parterre alone in their attack.
The History of Sir Richard Calmady
Lucas Malet
If these are the flowers of the parterre, what must be the weeds?
Ernest Maltravers, Complete
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
She occupied the first floor, and he the parterre, or ground floor.
Historic Oddities
Sabine Baring-Gould
Then, finding all quiet, she stepped over the parterre, and ventured out on the walk.
Hildebrand
Anonymous
With a bound he was in the parterre and said merely: Out, quick!
The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume III (of 3)
Alexander Wheelock Thayer
Anagram
rarer pet
Today’s quote
Art is whatever makes you proud to be human.
– Amiri Baraka
On this day
5 July 1937 – The canned meat, Spam (spiced ham) released to market by Hormel Food Corporation.
5 July 1946 – the first bikini goes on sale after its debut at a fashion show in Paris. It was designed by Parisian engineer, Louis Réard. He named it after Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean where the USA had been conducting testing of atomic bombs. Réard hoped that the bikini would have an ‘explosive commercial and cultural reaction’ just like an atomic bomb.
5 July 1989 – Former US Marine and white-house aide, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North given a three-year suspended sentence, two years probation, $150,000 in fines and 1,200 hours of community service after being convicted of ‘accepting an illegal gratuity’, ‘aiding and abetting in the obstruction of a congressional inquiry’ and ordering the destruction of documents during his role in the Iran-Contra affair (a political scandal during the Reagan administration in which the US government was selling weapons via intermediaries to Iran, a nation that was blacklisted from receiving weapons. The profits were channeled through Nicaraguan terrorist groups, the Contras, which were violently opposing Nicaragua’s ruling left-wing Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction).
5 July 1996 – Dolly the sheep becomes the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.