purlieu: [15] Purlieu has no etymological connection with French lieu ‘place’, which seems to have been grafted on to it in the 16th century in ignorance of its origins. It comes from Anglo-Norman puralee ‘act of walking round’, hence ‘area of land beyond a perimeter fixed by walking round’. This was a noun use of the past participle of Old French pouraler ‘go through, traverse’, a compound verb formed from the prefix pour- ‘round’ and aler ‘go’.
