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Parterre Has French Roots
Parterre comes to English by way of French, where it means "on the ground". And in the early years of the theater, the parterre was truly on the ground. In Shakespeare's day, an English theater's parterre was the cheap standing-room area right in front of the stage, normally filled with rowdy spectators. The original idea of the French parterre garden, with its carefully designed plots and walkways, was to present an artistic pattern when seen from above—from a balcony, a raised terrace, or the top of an outdoor staircase. English gardeners responded with garden designs that tried to make their viewers half-forget that they were seeing something created by humans rather than untamed nature itself.
Examples of parterre in a Sentence
Angelina Villa-Clarke, Forbes, 26 Jan. 2023
The proscenium has been removed entirely and the stage brought forward 25 feet, fitted with flexible risers and parterre seating.
—Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 6 Oct. 2022
About 900 bitter orange trees, planted in square metal boxes faced with oak, are sheltered in winter under its vaulted ceiling and used in summer to decorate its parterre as well as the Élysée Palace, the French president’s residence in Paris.
—Kathleen Beckett, New York Times, 6 Apr. 2020
Set on over 4 acres, this three-story, spacious English manor, located in a secluded, gated setting in prestigious close-in Memorial, is surrounded by park-like grounds and parterre gardens.
—Valerie Sweeten, Houston Chronicle, 15 Feb. 2020
The grounds offer a little bit of everything, including expansive lawns, a formal garden, a vegetable parterre, as well as natural forests and a fishing pond.
—Megan Barber, Curbed, 20 Dec. 2018
True to the period of the house, this one encloses a parterre garden accented by crape myrtle, camellia, sago palm, and banana.
—Lindsay Bierman, Southern Living, 20 Aug. 2012
Room furnishings in the main house are classical, with four-poster beds, but are updated with light, subtle fabrics and have hypnotic views of woods and parterres.
—Condé Nast Traveler, 20 Oct. 2017
There are no richer parterres to my eyes than the dense beds of dwarf andromeda (Cassandra calyculata) which cover these tender places on the earth’s surface.
—Henry David Thoreau, The Atlantic, 6 Oct. 2017
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'parterre.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
French, from Middle French, from par terre on the ground
circa 1625, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Dictionary Entries Near parterre
Cite this Entry
“Parterre.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/parterre. Accessed 28 Nov. 2023.
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More from Merriam-Webster on parterre
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about parterre
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