Plural of cordon; ropes or cords used as barriers, or lines of police or soldiers maintaining order or blocking access to an area.
From French cordon (cord, rope), derived from Old French corde. The word originally referred to a simple cord but evolved to mean a line of protective personnel or barriers, especially in military and ceremonial contexts.
The shift from a literal cord to an invisible social boundary—police cordons are often just tape or people, yet they're treated with the same respect as medieval castle walls, showing how humans turn symbols into rules.
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