Kristin lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, grew up in England, where public footpaths between buildings are called ginnels in Yorkshire and twittens in Sussex. Other terms around the country for these pathways include chare, snicket, jitty, jigger, and wynd...
You’re waiting for a bus. You wait, and then you wait some more. Finally, two or three buses show up at once, all headed for the same destination. Public transportation professionals have a term for this — several, in fact: bus bunching...
Imagine telling someone how to get to your home, but without using the name of your street, or any other street within ten miles. Could you do it? We take street names for granted, but these words are useful for far more, like applying for a job or...
Ron from Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, shares a family word he learned from his college roommate: asyou. The word asyou denotes “the second or third stair on the staircase” — in other words, the stair where you put things to remember to take...
An unofficial trail formed by people, animals, or erosion is called a social path, a desire path, or a cow path. This is part of a complete episode.
Like Bott’s dots and cat’s eyes, the word neckdown comes from the language of traffic flow regulation. A neckdown is an extension of a curb that widens the path for pedestrians and slows moving vehicles. Also called curb extensions, bulb...
