carrefour

American  

[kar-uh-foor, kar-uh-foor] / ˈkær əˌfʊər, ˌkær əˈfʊər /

noun

1. a crossroads; road junction.

2. a public square, plaza; marketplace.

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carrefour British  

/ ˈkærəˌfɔː /

noun

1. a rare word for crossroads

2. a public square, esp one at the intersection of several roads

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Etymology

Origin of carrefour

1475–85; < French; earlier quarefour, Middle French quarrefour < Late Latin quadrifurcum, neuter of quadrifurcus with four forks, equivalent to quadri- quadri- + -furcus -forked, adj. derivative of furcus, furca fork

Example Sentences

Daphnee Sylvestre and 2 months old baby is in her car in carrefour marotie’re 28 , needs help!

From New York Times • Jan. 19, 2010

At long intervals we would come to a keeper's lodge, standing quite alone in the middle of the forest, generally near a carrefour where several roads met.

From Chateau and Country Life in France by Waddington, Mary Alsop King

Is it not the French carrefour, a name applied to more than one place in Guernsey, though not, I believe, necessarily to a spot where four ways meet?

From Notes and Queries, Vol. III, Number 86, June 21, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Geneologists, etc. by Various

Master street: main street; so Froissart speaks of "le souverain carrefour."

From The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems by Purves, D. Laing

At this moment the baying of the pack was again heard near the carrefour.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, No. 359, September 1845 by Various