Down Your Alley, Up Your Street

Shawn, who lives in Washington State, is used to hearing the phrase right up your alley to describe something that’s particularly fitting for someone. Then she heard a British vlogger use the phrase right up your street in the same way. Since the early 1900s, the phrases right up one’s alley, or right down one’s alley, or the more old-fashioned in one’s street, all mean pretty much the same thing. They suggest the idea of a place that’s quite familiar, like an alley near your home. In its original sense, alley meant a wide space lined with trees, deriving from the French allée. This is part of a complete episode.