1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Piazza

PIAZZA, properly an open square or place in an Italian town (Ital. piazza, from Lat. platea, broad space, Gr. πλάτυς, broad). These squares were usually surrounded with a colonnade or arcade, and thus the word has been loosely applied to a covered walk or arcade along the front of a building, and in America, to the veranda of a house.