The word mall, as in shopping mall, has traveled a long and winding path, beginning with the Italian game of pallamaglio, which was played with a ball and a mallet. The name of the game found its way into French as pallemaille, which in turn became English pall mall. Pall Mall is now the name of a street in central London where the game was once played, and The Mall, which was also once the site of such games, is now a tree-lined promenade leading to Buckingham Palace. In the 1950s, the word mall was applied to streets that were closed off to make shops convenient for pedestrians. Later mall was used to denote complexes built specifically for shopping and located outside of urban centers. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “The Origin of “Mall” in Shopping Mall”
Hello, welcome to A Way with Words.
Hi, my name is Mary Gordon. That’s my first name. It’s a double first name.
Well, Mary Gordon…
And I’m calling from Austin, Texas.
Well, we’re glad to have you. Welcome to the show.
Hi, Mary Gordon.
Thank you.
What can we do for you?
My precious 13-year-old grandson, and that’s not an oxymoron.
You can be precious and a 13-year-old boy at the same time.
Let’s get that down.
Yes, ma’am.
So, his class trip this year from Austin is to Washington, D.C.
Now, my class trip when I grew up in a small Texas town, we went down to Riverside Park and picked pecans.
But they were all packing up to go to Washington.
So he asked his mama before he was leaving, he said, Mama, I need $75.
And she said, Really? What for?
And he said, Because we’re going to the mall, and I want to buy some souvenirs for my family and my friends.
And she just lovingly smiled at him and said, well, $75 is a lot of money.
How about I give you $15?
And so he did.
And at this time, he still did not know what the National Mall was.
He thought it was a shopping center like Barton Creek Mall that’s not too far from our houses.
Well, I just thought this was the cutest thing I had ever heard.
And he, when he found out it was the National Mall, he’s very embarrassed.
So I have been thinking about this word mall over and over.
I want to know basically how mall is used to describe the Mall of America, which is, I think, in Minnesota,
And the National Mall, which is, you know, a grassy lane in D.C.
You have posed one of the best questions we received this week, I think.
Why, Martha, is the Mall of America in Minnesota and the National Mall in D.C., why were they both called malls?
They seem very different.
It’s Martin Creek Mall.
Don’t forget our little local mall.
Sure, Martin Creek Mall.
Your mall there.
Yeah, the word mall has traveled a very, very long way all the way.
It certainly has.
Yes, it’s actually traveled all the way from London, England,
Because the word mall originally applied to a shady walk that served as a promenade
On the side of St. James Park in London.
And now in London, the mall is this beautiful tree-lined way
That goes between Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square.
I’ve been there.
Oh, you have?
I’ve been there. I’ve walked on that mall.
You have? Okay.
But I didn’t know it was called the mall.
Well, yes, it’s called the mall.
And the reason is that the word mall was applied to areas where people played a game called pall mall, P-A-L-L hyphen M-A-L-L.
The cigarettes got its name from the place at St. James Park.
Right, right.
The cigarettes came along much later.
But the game itself came to us from Italy through France.
In Italy, it was called Palla Maglio, and the word Palla means ball, and Maglio means mallet.
And it was kind of a cross between croquet and golf.
And so in this kind of space that was boarded off on either end, they played the game of Pall Mall.
And eventually, that name got applied to spaces like that where the game was played and to the big one.
So these alley-like strips of grassy areas that are kind of scenic and outdoorsy, parkish-like.
But it wasn’t until the 50s and 60s that we started in this country to either close off streets
So that they were only open to pedestrians.
And then later on, we began to have these centers that were called malls that we think of today as malls.
So as you can see, the word has traveled an awfully long way.
And then it also got applied to the mall in Washington.
We were aspiring to classical architecture and that kind of thing,
And it took on a prestigious name.
Well, thanks for finding that out,
And if you find any cigarettes named after that.
You know, in Texas, we make every word at least two or three syllables,
So we would say Paul Mall.
Bye.
I quite didn’t understand you at first because you said Paul Mall,
But I figured it out now.
Yeah, you know, people are not from Texas.
They just don’t sound right.
They do not to me.
I can tell you that for sure.
Thank you very much.
You give us a call sometime and let us know how things are going, all right?
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Take care now.
Bye.
Bye, Mary Gordon.
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