To block off or enclose an area with a rope, tape, or barrier; to isolate a location from public access.
From French 'cordon,' meaning 'small rope' or 'cord,' used as a military term for a line of guards. The 'cordon bleu' (blue ribbon) was the highest French honor.
The word 'cordon' comes from military formations of guards in a line, but now we use it for tape—showing how physical protection by soldiers became replaced by symbolic protection by barriers, yet the word stayed the same.
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