What we now call "a large enclosed building complex containing shops, restaurants, and other businesses and facilities serving the general public" originally came from Pall-Mall Alley; which was an alley used for a 17th century game where players used a mallet to hit a wooden ball through an iron hoop suspended at the end of a long alley and which later became a fashionable promenade (a place for a leisurely walk or stroll).

To clarify the connection between today's malls and the 1674 mall, we should view the malls we have now as "public walking places" (promenades) with The Mall in St. Jame's Park in London which referred to that alley-game mentioned earlier; that is, pall-mall or literally "ball-mallet".