parvis
Americannoun
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a vacant enclosed area in front of a church.
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a colonnade or portico in front of a church.
noun
Etymology
Origin of parvis
1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French; Old French pare ( v ) is < Late Latin paradīsus church courtyard, originally the one before St. Peter's, Rome. See paradise
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In Paris, they marred the city’s famous public spaces, cluttering the Esplanade des Invalides, the Place Vendôme, the banks of the Seine, and the parvis in front of Notre Dame.
From Slate ● Mar. 30, 2023
So, decentralized it is, and multi-disciplinary: a studio and an auditorium for movies, dance and other performances; a restaurant, and a large parvis as in Paris, currently planted with saplings.
From New York Times ● May 12, 2010
There were some linden-trees planted in a hollow square before the parvis of the Cathedral, and stone benches set beneath them.
From Calvert of Strathore by Carter Goodloe
It extends from what we have supposed to be the old refectory to the parvis, and abuts on the three lost spans of the church, covering about one hundred and twenty feet.
From Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres by Henry Adams
Nineteen service books were missing "in parvis tabulis."
From Old English Libraries by Ernest Albert Savage
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
