Promenade

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /ˈpɹɒmənɑːd/

Definitions

1. A leisurely walk taken in public for pleasure or display, often along a fashionable avenue or waterfront, or the paved area where such strolling typically occurs
2. A public walkway or venue designed for casual strolling and social display, or the act of walking leisurely through such spaces for recreation and visibility
3. An open area or pathway where people gather to walk about for pleasure and to be seen by others, or the activity itself of moving slowly through such a location

Etymology: "Promenade" came into English from French, where "promenade" meant a walk, a sense inherited from the verb "promener", to walk or take someone out for a stroll. The French verb itself goes back to Latin roots: "prominare" was a Latin verb meaning to drive forward, built from "pro-" (forward) and "minare" (to drive animals), and it drifted in French to the sense of taking someone out for a walk. That origin is why the word once suggested herding or leading rather than simply strolling. English kept the French form almost unchanged, so the word still carries its French stress and pronunciation pattern in its borrowed shape, with the final syllable stressed in French-influenced speech. In English it first described the act of walking for pleasure and the place where people walked, and it later extended to a formal stroll in public, such as a seafront or a path laid out for strolling.

Synonyms: stroll, walk, parade, amble, saunter

Antonyms: run, rush, sprint, dash, hurry