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Joined: Mar 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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OP
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
LANE:
Noun: 1a. A narrow country road. b. A narrow way or passage between walls, hedges, or fences. 2. A narrow passage, course, or track, especially: a. A prescribed course for ships or aircraft. b. A strip delineated on a street or highway to accommodate a single line of vehicles: a breakdown lane; an express lane.c. Sports/ One of a set of parallel courses marking the bounds for contestants in a race, especially in swimming or track. d. Sports A wood-surfaced passageway or alley along which a bowling ball is rolled. e. Sports An unmarked lengthwise area of a playing field or ice rink viewed as the main playing area for a particular position, such as a wing in soccer. f. Basketball The rectangular area marked on a court from the end line to the foul line.
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English.
Europe has a network of lanes that were the wagon trails and routes for mediæval travelers, pilgrims, tradesmen and drovers. Bounded by banks, hedgerows and walls, they cross bridges and fords on the way to market towns and places of work. Many of them are so old they have been worn by centuries of use into what are termed ‘sunken lanes’ and turned into tunnel-like mazes by overarching hedges. Some of these ‘sunken lanes’ are quite unsuitable for motorised traffic, but as the need for vehicle access has increased so the number of surviving green lanes has shrunk.
They form wildlife habitats and have great historical interest, their contours, surfaces and routes reflect the goods and people that used them. Preservation groups are now taking action to reduce future losses.
Lanes are not found solely in the countryside, they also appear in towns under sense 1b of the definition. The oldest part of Brighton, England, for example, is known as The Lanes. They are narrow, brick-paved passages, dating back to the time when the village of Brighthelmstone consisted of a maze of streets housing the market, a sprinkling of chapels, the poorhouse and the fishermen's cottages. After the village was burnt to the ground by French invaders in the 16th century it was rebuilt along the same streets covering an area of approximately one square mile. Many of the buildings are in fact even older than they look, the 17th century fisherman’s cottages having been re-fronted over the years. They are now mostly antique shops, coffee shops, boutiques and small restaurants.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Two thoughts:
What most people call "alleys", we called "back lanes" in Winnipeg. That would be the small passageways behind properties that allowed access to your garage, and was where the garbage trucks picked up garbage. They must be a recent invention because there is no evidence whatsoever of back lanes here in St. John's.
The word "lane" reminds me of a Newfoundlandism for roads which is "line". Here is what the Dictionary of Newfoundland English has to say (long, I know):
line2 n Cp OED ~ sb2 26 'track, course, direction; route: e.g. line of communication'; SMITH County of Kerry (1756), p. 169 [They have greatly improved this estate, by cutting a new road from Abbey-feal ... to Castle-Island ... which roads are carried in direct lines, over mountains, through bogs, and morasses ... ]. MASON Survey of Ireland (1814-19) i, 298 'a great line of road ... has been long projected.' W SCOTT Rob Roy (1818) i, 57 I should have been glad if I had journeyed upon a line of road better calculated to afford reasonable objects of curiosity. LEWIS Disturbances in Ireland (1836), p. 289 '[They] mostly reside on the line of road between Kilcommon and Borrisaleigh.' O Sup2 ~ 26 e Chiefly Canada and N Z 'a settlement road, a bush road'; cp DC ~ 3 b, c 'a settlement road in Upper Canada' (1828-), 'a road, esp one built through the bush' (1830-) and other listed senses; 1880 EDS No. 7, p. 63 ~ 'the new roads are so called' N I; SEARY 147-8.
1 In phr line of road, ~ of street: a way or path planned and cut through rough country by surveyors and crews.
1835 Journ of Assembly 147 [This forms] part of a main line of road, which [extends] from Topsail along the Southern Shore of Conception Bay. 1836 [WIX]2 193 [From Petty Harbour] I walked ... by the new line of road through the woods to St John's, on which the road commissioners have lately expended [£52]. [cl837] 1882 TALBOT 2 [In St John's] there were some good shops and stores in the line of street along the water's edge, and some few detached private residences ... along the side of the hill. 1846 TOCQUE 125 This clearly points out the necessity of having a line of road between these places. 1887 Colonist Christmas No 16 The opening of the main lines of road is also worthy of notice, as they not only afforded necessary employment during the season of depression, but opened communication for traffic.
2 A road planned and cut across rough country by surveyors, often between coastal settlements; freq in road-names.
1835 Journ of Assembly 147 Brookfield road ... would form part of a new line to Topsail. [1843] 1846 TOCQUE 148 [They opened] up its interior by means of good roads and communications upon lines carefully surveyed and carried through lands. [1848] 1971 SEARY 227 Indian Meal Line. 1850 Nfld Almanac 43 Road Commissioners: Tickle Cove to Main Line from King's Cove. 1901 Christmas Review 10 The charred skeleton of the horse was found the next summer four miles in on the Holyrood line. 1911 Tribune Christmas No You can take a horse and carriage and drive into the village over the Salmonier line, through beautiful scenery that well repays you for your visit. P 148-65 Where do you belong to, the back line? P 148-65 The road from Old Perlican to Lead Cove was built in the 1920's to replace the path along Trinity Bay, which was hard on the horses. Mr A tracked it out; there were no surveyors for a job like that [at that time]. It is still called the new line. 1977 RUSSELL 26 Almost half the men in Pigeon Inlet used to go in over the line every fall as soon as fishin' was over, and come back just in time to get ready for fishin' again.
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According to the above, this usage is also found in NZ (hi Max & Pfranz!). Anyway, here we have street names like Ruby Line, Back Line, Salmonier Line, Higgins Line. Most lead from one distinct area to another (rather than being fully contained within one community). We found the names strange when we first came.
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