In England in the early 18th century there was a major road-building programme. The new roads were built straight, or existing roads straightened, with tolls levied at the turnpikes, so they became known as turnpike roads. Straight roads are for speed, which I suspect (being too lazy to look it up) is why the word became associated with expressways, motorways, whatever.
Over here we don't use the word for motorways etc., it's only used, as far as I'm aware, for the original Georgian roads. People often mistake old turnpike roads for Roman roads, and vice versa. Roads shouldn't be straight. They should follow contour lines, or old animal migration trails, or drove roads. Straight roads are an abomination. Although it's quite nice to follow Roman roads. There's a good one leading from Pontoise right into Paris. B > On 12 Apr 2016, at 22:50, Brian Walters <[email protected]> wrote: > > Speaking of words, 'turnpike' is one I've never understood. I know it > refers to what we (ie. downunder) would call an expressway or motorway, > but what's the etymology of 'turnpike'? > > > Cheers > > Brian > > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > Brian Walters > Western Sydney Australia > http://lyons-ryan.org/southernlight/ > > >> On Wed, Apr 13, 2016, at 04:40 AM, P.J. Alling wrote: >> There has to be something seriously wrong with any male that find's >> pleasure in watching Lena Dunham disrobe. But then again there are >> always rubberneckers at crash sites on the turnpike. >> >>> On 4/12/2016 9:31 AM, Daniel J. Matyola wrote: >>> In view of some of the recent PESO postings, and in an effort to >>> elevate the level of discussion on this forum, I am providint the >>> followin: >>> >>> A.Word.A.Day >>> with Anu Garg >>> >>> ecdysiast >>> >>> PRONUNCIATION: >>> (ek-DIZ-ee-ast) >>> >>> MEANING: >>> noun: A person who disrobes to provide entertainment for others. >>> >>> ETYMOLOGY: >>> Coined by writer and editor H.L. Mencken in 1940, from ecdysis >>> (shedding or molting), from Greek ekdysis (casting off), from ek- >>> (out) + dyein (to put on). >>> >>> USAGE: >>> “Lena Dunham drenched the market with her formidable musings under the >>> title of Not That Kind of Girl, a biography memoir in the great >>> tradition of Pamela Anderson and other literary ecdysiasts.” >>> Rex Murphy; The Year in Activist Feminism; National Post (Canada); Dec 27, >>> 2014. > > -- > http://www.fastmail.com - Email service worth paying for. Try it for free > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
