Does anyone know the true meaning & origin of the term barditch? Obviously it is used in Texas (they have website named that) What is the difference between a ditch and a barditch?? Thanks for any input!

Does anyone know the true meaning & origin of the term barditch?

Tsuwm came closest to answering this question seriously when Fundybayirl* [also a "Stranger"] asked the same question on July 19, 2004. Here is tsuwm's response:

bar ditch is Western alteration of 'borrow ditch', which NI3 defines as "a ditch dug along a roadway to furnish fill and provide drainage" -- none of which 'splains nothin'.

except that the roadfill is borrowed from the ditch, I suppose. hmmm. roadfill. seems like there's a rhyme there somewhere...

* Here is Fundybaygirl's question:

I an reading a story which takes place in west Texas. The author routinely refers to the excavation on either side of a county road as a "barditch". I can't find the word in any on-line or hard copy dictionary. Does anyone know the origin of the word and why people from Texas might use it? Does anyone else use this word in place of simple old "ditch"?

http://www.wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=131839

Looks like the term "barditch" took almost a year to work its way out up to you from Fundy Bay, Wittygirl21. :)
[We should put tags on some of these word critters. Then we could study their migration routes like they do Monarch butterflies.]

This link will get you to the same place without making the screen go wide:

http://www.wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=131839

that's right; for links within these forums just cut off everything after the six-digit number and chuck it.

re small screen link

I used yours. Thanks. I found the link to wordsmith.org on Google.