Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 08:04:34 -0700
From: Allen Maberry maberry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]U.WASHINGTON.EDU
Subject: Re: Another Lexical Item
For me, a sidewalk is parallel to the street, the concrete strip from
the sidewalk to the front porch is just "the walk".
Allen
maberry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]u.washington.edu
On Thu, 5 Oct 1995, Natalie Maynor wrote:
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)