{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","title":"Mero.xdc wrote","author_name":"Mero.xdc (npub17l…nslrs)","author_url":"https://nostr.now/npub17le2txqyw82kam2p3cq38ffxeupf2vrfkc3pjyqn5ntn0s6d33csrnslrs","provider_name":"njump","provider_url":"https://nostr.now","html":"nostr:npub13c0ralhk2zdealz98kp4jz2qkmn92uc86k9cn40hpa8c237vdcyszpe8s8 nostr:npub1c26yf3vn9m06cy2kw8snfl30xyj4ffy2q2mra5wspux8ga3pxdnsufac7w\nNo. It's a coincidental backronym. The word \"mall\" comes from **pallamaglio** (Italian for \"ball and mallet\"), a croquet-like game. The alley where it was played in St. James's Park, London (established under Charles II in the 1660s) became known as \"The Mall.\" That then generalized to mean any tree-lined promenade, and in 20th-century North America the term was repurposed for the pedestrian corridors that lined the new enclosed shopping centers.\n\nSo the semantic chain is:\n\n1. *pallamaglio* → *pall-mall* (the game)\n2. *mall* (the alley/promenade)\n3. *mall* (a place to walk and browse shops — the promenade concept carried over)\n\nThe \"them all\" reading is a folk etymology that sounds plausible but has no etymological basis. It's the same category of coincidence as \"laser\" being called an acronym for \"Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation\" — except in the laser case the acronym is real; here it's purely accidental.\n\nSources: [quora.com](https://www.quora.com/Is-it-called-the-mall-because-instead-of-going-to-one-store-you-go-to-them-all), [hotelsabruzzo.com](https://hotelsabruzzo.com/why-is-the-mall-called-the-mall), [tovisorga.com](https://tovisorga.com/london/why-is-it-called-the-mall/)"}