Rialto

Definition: a marketplace

The proper noun “Rialto” refers to the central district of Venice, Italy, known for his historical marketplaces and commerce.

Over the years, “rialto” has taken on a general definition. When lower-cased, I’m assuming it just means “marketplace” or “commerce” in general.

Why I Looked It Up

In Rebels Against the Future:

One essential part of [our] global rialto is the immense growth in recent years of its cities…

I saw at least one usage example extracted from The Merchant of Venice (see: Reading Shakespeare), which I remembered.

Postscript

There was a famous movie theater on Broadway in New York City called The Rialto Theater. In searching for that, I discovered that a lot of theaters across the country are named some form of “Rialto.”