Terrace
early 16th century (denoting an open gallery, later a platform or balcony in a theatre): from Old French, literally ‘rubble, platform’, based on Latin terra ‘earth’.
wiktionary
Borrowed from French terrasse, from Old Occitan terrassa, from terra(“land”). Doublet of terrasse.
etymonline
terrace (n.)
1510s, "gallery, portico, balcony," later "flat, raised place for walking" (1570s), from French terrace (Modern French terasse), from Old French terrasse (12c.) "platform (built on or supported by a mound of earth)," from Vulgar Latin *terracea, fem. of *terraceus "earthen, earthy," from Latin terra "earth, land" (from PIE root *ters- "to dry").
As a natural formation in geology, attested from 1670s. In street names, originally in reference to a row of houses along the top of a slope, but lately applied arbitrarily as a fancy name for an ordinary road. As a verb from 1610s, "to form into a terrace." Related: Terraced.
