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