parterre

noun par-TEHR Rare

Origin: French borrowing meaning 'on the ground'.

Also means

front rows

Usage Note

Il parterre is an invariable French loanword (unchanged in plural). In Italian it refers to the ground-floor seating area of a theatre or the front row of a conference audience. Because it is borrowed unchanged, it does not inflect: i parterre remains i parterre. Stress falls on the final syllable, following French habit.

Examples

"Il parterre era tutto esaurito."

Natural Translation

The parterre was completely sold out.

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