maidan

Meaning

Noun

• A marketplace or other open space in or by a city or town; an esplanade.
• Independence Square, the main city square in Kiev, Ukraine.
• The Orange Revolution protests that took place in Kiev’s Maidan in 2004–05; the Euromaidan protests of 2013–14; the protest movement associated with the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution.

Origin

• From Hindi मैदान/Urdu میدان, and its source, Persian میدان ("town-square or central place of gathering"), from Arabic مَيْدَان, itself an Iranian borrowing (see the Arabic entry for more), from Proto-Iranian *madyānah, from *mádyah, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *mádʰyas, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos. Compare Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬜𐬌𐬌𐬀, Sanskrit मध्य, Latin medius.
• , from the same Persian source as above.