The earliest usages of mall in English are derived from pall-mall, a game played in 17th-century England and somewhat earlier in Italy and France. Pall-mall came into English through the French pallemaille, meaning ball and mallet. The object of the game was to drive a boxwood ball through a suspended iron ring using a mallet.

2. Pall Mall, a London street, formerly a pall-mall alley (1656)

3. the Mall, a promenade in London’s St. James Park, originally a pall-mall alley that became fashionable in the 17th and 18th centuries (1673)

4. a walkway bordered by trees (1737); (a) a sheltered walk used as a promenade; (b) a wide walkway in a park, often set off by trees, shrubs, or  flowers

5. a grassy or paved area between roadways; (a) median strip; (b) a pedestrian walkway adjacent to a road

6. a open grassy area surrounded by academic buildings on a college campus

7. an open area between public buildings, reserved primarily for pedestrians

8. the paved walkway between shops in an open-air shopping district; (a) a shopping district or street closed to vehicles (1959); (b) the walkway in front of a series of shops , especially shops comprising a shopping center; (c) the walkway between two rows of shops in an open-air shopping center, often including trees, flowers, fountains,  benches, and other outdoor  features

9. a shopping center, typically a linear arrangement of connected stores fronted by a walkway and parking area; (a) any open-air shopping plaza or shopping center; (b) a strip mall normally contains no more than a dozen stores and services;

10. the walkways in an enclosed shopping center (1954)

11. an enclosed shopping center, a large structure managed by a single company housing a variety of retail shops and services, surrounded by a parking area, and situated  in a suburban setting; (a) any large shopping center; (b) a mixed-use shopping complex, which combines stores, services, offices, restaurants, recreation, and other functions

12. specialty malls include (a) festival market places (1976), which mix consumer, historical, and recreational activities, such as Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Baltimore’s Harbor Place; (b) lifestyle malls (c.1985) are typically small, open-air shopping centers with a combination of shops, restaurants, and other features designed to appeal to a particular segment of the consumer population; (c) lifestyle centers integrate retail functions with extensive entertainment, recreational and residential components

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Definitions are based in part on: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd. ed., Oxford: Clarendon, 1989; Oxford Dictionary of New Words, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991; Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language. Springfield: G. & C. Merriam, 1976; Oxford Universal Dictionary on Historical Principles. London: Oxford University Press, 1955;  ICSC’s Dictionary of Shopping Center Terms. New York: International Council of Shopping Centers, 2001.

Sources of images are post cards.