A side scene or backdrop in a theater that can slide in and out, or a financial exchange where unofficial stock trading occurs.
From French coulisse, meaning 'a groove' or 'sliding channel,' derived from the verb couler meaning 'to flow' or 'to slide.' The term originally referred to the mechanical sliding scenes in theaters before being applied to informal financial markets.
The word traveled from the theater world to high finance—both use hidden mechanisms to make things appear and disappear! French theaters invented these sliding backdrops, and Paris's unofficial stockbrokers later adopted the name for their shadowy trading operations outside official exchanges.
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