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Here in the South (NC), the word "level" appears in many street and town names; e.g., Green Level, White Level, Squirrel Level Rd., etc. I don't see an obvious correlation to the topography of the area. Is there a meaning to the word that I don't know?
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Hey, pretty good question IrishEd. Here in Alabama we have the town of Red Level which might or might not be flat. I'll check the topo and then ask the folks there if no one here gives an answer that satisfies the southern code of place nomenclature didactic. 
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I've never heard of that use of "level", but "Squirrel Level Road" sounds like an avenue of road kill. It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Rocky Road".
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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That is a good question. In Carrboro, NC there is a Smith Level Road, and it's not very level at all. Quite hilly, in fact.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I found this at Wikipedia: Quote:
In mining, "levels" are horizontal passageways through the mine which generally follow the lode or provide transit facilities through the mine (cf. shaft); a level with access to the outside world is an adit
sorta related, kinda maybe? are talking mining country?
formerly known as etaoin...
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stranger
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stranger
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Since moving to NC, I have been obsessed by this use of "level." Not only is there no readily available explanation, it's almost impossible to make one up that is even remotely plausible. I can only imagine (lacking anything like, say, facts) that "level" is actually another word altogether, much as asparagus is, in some places, called "sparrow grass." But if it is true, then what is that other word, or words? Or what if, as in Colorado Springs, there were the intention to create an impression contrary to fact, for real-estate reasons?
But enough conjecture. Time to get sleuthing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
, it's almost impossible to make one up that is even remotely plausible.
is mine (pun intended) not remotely plausible?
welcome to the Board, Bernard! 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Some roads are named for the place they go (or used to go) rather than their own "properties". Perhaps Squirrel Level Road used to go to/through/past a (small) flat spot called Squirrel Level (which may no longer exist). It might have been near Squirrel Flats/Hollow/Dale/Valley/Mountain/etc. (^_^)
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Quote:
In mining, "levels" are horizontal passageways through the mine which generally follow the lode or provide transit facilities through the mine (cf. shaft); a level with access to the outside world is an adit
I wonder if calling a road a "level" might indicate that it follows the lay of the land, rather than having had a bed blasted or excavated for it, as a mining level follows the lode.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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AHA! Here is the answer, brought to you from the web site for the town of Red Level, AL:
The community was named evolved from Read's Level, for tract of land owned by James Read.
So it stands to reason that there were tracts of land with names like White's Level, Smith's Level, etc., and the roads to these tracts had names that evolved into White Level, Squirrel Level, etc.
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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So, was it a level tract of land? As opposed to, say, Read's Hill or (heh) Read's Bottom?
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Thanks TEd, even though I'm not sure that you're on the level. Because the TEd I know is someone who is, and was, on the level, and who, sometimes, would put his definition in the form of a pun. But, thanks anyway, TEd, you have answered my question: But my feelings are hurt. I will now go out and find someone else who will make me a pun.  Milo
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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formerly known as etaoin...
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Hi Ed welcome to the board. I don't know about the south but here names chosen for real estate have little to do with reality. "Oak Hills" was a trailer park with a few scrubby pines in the bottom of the valley near where I grew up. (The second time it flooded someone added an "S" to the front of the sign.  )
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ha! i live in rego park (spider man (peter parker!)) lived here too, with his grandparents)
Rego park was develped in the 1930's (after the subway was built) by the REal GOod developement Corp. REal GOod. REGO.
(before this, the area was mostly truck farms growing chinese vegetables for markets in china town.)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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the area was mostly truck farms growing chinese vegetables But...wouldn't they have been New York vegetables, then?
Oh, sorry--thought I was still in W & F!
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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think "bok choi" with a Jersy accent!!
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Carpal Tunnel
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No jackie, Queens(county) vegetables for New York (county/aka the island of manhattan) tables!
Queens county still has one working farm, and a farm museum, complete with sheep and an apple orchard.
the farm is very small (a large vegetable garden) owned an operated for the novelty of being the last farm in queens (the owner also own a real farm out east, (suffolk county))
i remember farms in queens from my childhood, (they kept disappearing and turning into apartment building complexes), like the one i live in now (built post war, on one of the remaining farms)
Last edited by of troy; 01/18/07 11:53 PM.
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