piatza

Likely from Italian piazza, ultimately from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa); see more at piazza.

piatza (plural piatzas)

1. Marketplace, meeting place.
   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 8:

     Sometimes 5 Imprimaturs are ſeen together dialogue-wiſe in the Piatza of one Title page, complementing and ducking each other with their ſhav'n reverences

   • 1874, John Milton, edited by J. W. Hales, Milton Areopagitica Edited With Introduction and Notes‎, Oxford: Clarendon Press, Notes, page 84:

     Piatza = market-place, meeting-place [...] Shakspere seems to use place in this sense in The Taming of the Shrew, i. I. 'Padua, a public place '

From a Cariban language, ultimately from Proto-Cariban *pɨjati; compare Trió pïjai, Akurio piyahi, Carijona hiyači (“shaman”) (from Proto-Taranoan *pɨjaci, from the Proto-Cariban term).

piatza (plural piatzas)

1. A shaman among the indigenous peoples of Guyana.
   • 1876, Carl Engel, “Music and Medicine”, in Musical Myths and Facts‎, volume II, London: Novello, Ewer & Co.,  , pages 89–90:

     The Indian tribes in Guiana have mystery-men, called Piatzas, or Piaies, who constitute a powerful priesthood.

• Iztapa