Supermall

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large shopping complex that contains a wide variety of retail stores, entertainment venues, and dining options all under one roof
2. An expansive commercial center designed to accommodate numerous shops, restaurants, and leisure activities for consumers in one location
3. A vast retail environment that integrates a multitude of shopping outlets along with entertainment and food services, catering to a broad audience

Etymology: "Supermall" is a plain compound: the prefix "super-", from Latin "super" meaning "above" or "beyond," attached to "mall." The prefix in English has been used since the late 1800s to mean "larger than, or beyond the usual scale of," as in "superhighway" or "supermarket," and that is the sense it brings here. The base word "mall" has its own unexpected history. It comes from the Italian "pallamaglio," a game in which a wooden ball was struck with a mallet through an iron ring. English took the game's name in the 1600s as "pall-mall," and the long, tree-lined alley where it was played gave us the place-name sense. Only later did "mall" come to mean an enclosed shopping arcade, and the prefix then made the bigger version.

Synonyms: megastore, shopping center, hypermarket, mall, plaza