terrace [E16th] In the early 16th century a terrace was an open gallery, and later it came to mean a platform or balcony in a theatre. A terrace of houses was originally a row built slightly above the level of the road—the first terrace of houses was mentioned in the 1760s, at first in street names like Adelphi Terrace. The source was a medieval French word meaning ‘rubble, platform’, based on Latin terra ‘earth’, the source of many other English words such as terrain [E18th], terrestrial [LME], territory [LME], and subterranean [E17th]. A territory was originally the area surrounding a town and was subject to its laws. To say that something goes with the territory is to say that it is an unavoidable result of a situation. Territory here is probably used in the sense ‘the area in which a sales representative or distributor has the right to operate’, which developed in the US in the early 20th century. In Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman (1949), the central character Willy Loman tells his son that a salesman has to dream: ‘It comes with the territory.’ See also kop.