plaza (pla za)

[Sp., = It. piazza = F. place, > E. place: see place.] A public square or open space surrounded by houses in a Spanish or Spanish-American town or city; a marketplace in such a town: as, the Plaza of San Francisco. Overlooking the Plaza , you had before you, acro the midst of the open space, the Parker House, famous as the first of Californian hotels. J. W. Palmer, The New and the Old, p. 70. = =