maidan

Meanings

1. A marketplace or other open space in or by a city or town; an esplanade.

1. Independence Square, the main city square in Kyiv, Ukraine.
2. 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.

1. Ellipsis of Maidan Shahr: the capital of Maidan Wardak province, Afghanistan.
2. Ellipsis of Maidan Wardak: a province of Afghanistan.
3. Ellipsis of Euromaidan, the protests in Ukraine in 2014.

Etymology

From Hindustani میدان (medān) / मैदान (maidān), and its source, Persian میدان (meydân, maydān, “town-square or central place of gathering”), from Arabic مَيْدَان (maydān), itself an Iranian borrowing (see the Arabic entry for more), from Proto-Iranian *madyānah, from *mádyah (“middle”), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *mádʰyas, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos. Compare Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬜𐬌𐬌𐬀 (maⁱδiia), Sanskrit मध्य (madhya), Latin medius.