Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary · Voltaire
_BOULEVERD OR BOULEVART_
Boulevart, fortification, rampart. Belgrade is the boulevart of the Ottoman Empire on the Hungarian side. Who would believe that this word originally signified only a game of bowls? The people of Paris played bowls on the grass of the rampart; this grass was called the _verd_, like the grass market. _On boulait sur le verd._ From there it comes that the English, whose language is a copy of ours in almost all the words which are not Saxon, have called the game of bowls "bowling-green," the _verd_ (green) of the game of bowls. We have taken back from them what we had lent them. Following their example, we gave the name of _boulingrins_, without knowing the strength of the word, to the grass-plots we introduced into our gardens. I once heard two good dames who were going for a walk on the _Bouleverd_, and not on the _Boulevart_. People laughed at them, and wrongly. But in all matters custom carries the day; and everyone who is right against custom is hissed or condemned.
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