Cordons

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Lines or barriers set up to restrict or control access or movement ; ornamental cords or braids used as decoration or trim
2. Physical boundaries created to block or limit passage ; decorative strings or bands often attached to clothing or furnishings
3. A series of barriers arranged to prevent entry or exit ; intricately twisted cords serving a decorative purpose

Etymology: "Cordons" is the plural of "cordon," and the singular has a neat physical logic: it began as a small rope. Old French "cordon" was a diminutive of "corde," meaning cord or rope, so a cordon was literally a little cord. That image carried through Middle French into Middle English, where the word was borrowed with the same sense of a slender string or band. Those two meanings still share the same thread. A decorative cord or braid sewn onto a coat or curtain is a little cord in its plainest form, while a line of guards or barriers is the same idea stretched across ground. Police lines and quarantine boundaries were, in effect, rope strung between posts, turning a thin strand into a barrier that people could see and obey.

Synonyms: barriers, fences, enclosures, boundaries

Antonyms: openings, accesses