piste

Imagine gliding down a snowy mountain. The piste is the marked, prepared run you are skiing or snowboarding on. In modern English, this is the main use of the word. If someone says "the piste is closed," they mean that ski run is not open or not safe to use. The word can also mean a track or a narrow strip used for sport, especially in fencing, but most people will meet it first at a ski resort.

The word piste comes from French, where it meant a track or path. In English, though, it is now used mainly in sports, especially skiing. Picture a snowy mountain with clear, groomed runs cut across it. Each of those marked runs can be called a piste. Resorts maintain them and mark them by difficulty, so a beginner might stay on an easy run while an expert chooses a steeper one.

This is why you may hear someone say, "Let's hit the pistes," when they are heading out to ski. It also appears in the phrase "off-piste," which means skiing away from the marked runs, often on ungroomed snow. That use is common and helps show the contrast: on the piste means on the prepared run, while off-piste means outside it.

Beyond snow sports, the word also has a clear meaning in fencing. The piste is the long, narrow strip where the fencers compete. In that sense, the word still carries its older idea of a track or set path.

So whether you are talking about a ski run on a mountain or the strip used in fencing, piste suggests a marked route made for a particular activity.