Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 08:08:17 -0400

From: Wayne Glowka wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MAIL.GAC.PEACHNET.EDU

Subject: Re: Another Lexical Item



Do any of you have any idea how common it is to use the word "sidewalk"

to refer to the strip of concrete that runs from the street to the front

door of a house? I had always assumed it was the standard term, but a

a recent discussion on Words-L got confusing for a few minutes because

I was using "sidewalk" to mean the sidewalk that comes to my door, while

other people thought that a "sidewalk" had to be parallel to the street.

When I asked what they called the strip of concrete that comes to the

front door, they said "walkway." I've never heard anybody say "walkway"

for what I call a "sidewalk." (I also use "sidewalk" for one that runs

parallel to the street, of course.)

--Natalie (maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ra.msstate.edu)



"Sidewalk" works for me, although I've been talking lately of making a

"walk" with bricks from the porch to the gravel parking area. A "walkway"

has to be above the ground for me. When I was a child, my suburban house

in San Antonio had a concrete driveway (low sign, cf. Fussell) that led to

a sidewalk parallel to the street. But we would have called the concrete

strip that led from the neighbor's house to the sidewalk a sidewalk too.

It never occurred to me before that a sidewalk was on the side of anything.











Wayne Glowka

Professor of English

Director of Research and Graduate Student Services

Georgia College

Milledgeville, GA 31061

912-453-4222

wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]mail.gac.peachnet.edu