# What did roadrunners used to be called? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 24, 2016, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095 "2016-01-24T18:47:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/21 "2016-01-25T00:06:22Z")
> [@Henga](#): > > Speedy Gonzales? Nope - he went home to Rosita. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/22 "2016-01-25T00:18:04Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There have been roads there for as long as there have been people. Only for very loose definitions of the word “road”. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/23 "2016-01-25T00:24:27Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There have been roads there for as long as there have been people. And before there were people there, the local fauna didn’t have any name at all, because we’re the only ones who name things. Apropos of which, of course, before there were English-speaking people there the bird we know as roadrunner already had a lot of different names, such as _hospowi_ in the Hopi language and _boyyi_ in Zuni. I don’t know what the etymological derivation of any of those names would be, or if it had anything to do with running on roads. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/24 "2016-01-25T00:33:17Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Only for very loose definitions of the word “road”. Well, it’s not all that “loose” to say that a road (from Old English _rad_, “journey, travel”) is a designated pathway for people to travel on. And in that sense, yes, almost all human societies have had roads. If you’re going to restrict the use of “road” according to specifications of width, grade, surface, signage, etc., then most of the known routes historically designated by some term equivalent to “road” wouldn’t qualify by modern standards. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/25 "2016-01-25T00:43:28Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Wikipedia informs me that “chaparral cock” is an alternate name for the roadrunner. My grandmother–who grew up on a small ranch in West Texas in the 1920s–always called them chaparrals. As an adult, she like to collect little figurines of them. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/26 "2016-01-25T01:05:49Z")
“Chaparral” describes a kind of landscape, which to my knowledge also does not occur in Arizona. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/27 "2016-01-25T01:39:26Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > “Chaparral” describes a kind of landscape, which to my knowledge also does not occur in Arizona. Didn’t the tv show “High Chaparral” take place near Tuscon? No way a tv show could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/28 "2016-01-25T01:47:54Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > “Chaparral” describes a kind of landscape, which to my knowledge also does not occur in Arizona. Properly speaking, [chapparal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaparral) is a type of vegetation that occurs only in California and northern Baja California. However, the name Chapparal Cock could have been acquired in California but spread to other areas outside the chapparal biome. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/29 "2016-01-25T01:49:37Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Well, it’s not all that “loose” to say that a road (from Old English _rad_, “journey, travel”) is a designated pathway for people to travel on. And in that sense, yes, almost all human societies have had roads. Are you saying that we should consider the Old English definition of words when determining if they are appropriate for the usage in Modern English? In that case, I suppose we could say that David Bowie recently starved. A path is not a road, in Modern English. Not to mention that the early “people” **Chronos** would be referring to would not be speaking any brand of English at all. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/30 "2016-01-25T01:50:58Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Phoenix did have a AAA baseball team called the Firebirds before the MLB Diamondbacks appeared on the scene. > > As for Cardinals, it was their name when they previously played in St. Louis, and before that in Chicago. They’re one of the original teams in the NFL, dating back to 1920. And while the cardinal isn’t primarily associated with the state, there are cardinals in Arizona. The Chicago Cardinals—like the St. Louis Cardinals—were originally named after the color Cardinal red, not after the bird. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/31 "2016-01-25T02:05:16Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > The Chicago Cardinals—like the St. Louis Cardinals—were originally named after the color Cardinal red, not after the bird. _Still_ true of the Stanford Cardinal. No “s” please! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/32 "2016-01-25T02:20:13Z")
nm. Forgot to refresh. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/33 "2016-01-25T02:48:58Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Are you saying that we should consider the Old English definition of words when determining if they are appropriate for the usage in Modern English? No, you’re mixing up “definition” with “etymology”. The phrase _“designated pathway for people to travel on”_ is a perfectly cromulent Modern English definition of the Modern English word “road”. I quite agree that it’s not the **sole** or even the **primary** definition of “road” in Modern English, but it’s a perfectly reasonable one to use in interpreting a sentence like _“There have been roads there for as long as there have been people”_. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/34 "2016-01-25T03:15:12Z")
I don’t know when the word _roadrunner_ was coined, but the earliest example of the word “road” being used in America that I can find is the Fall Line Road that was in use in 1735. It was certainly used earlier than that, they wouldn’t use a word that no one knew, that’s just the earliest road that I could find with “Road” in it’s name. By the time the first American carved out the first path wide enough to handle a wagon in Arizona, the word “road” was definitely in use. Based on that, it’s quite possible that Wyatt Earp called them roadrunners. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/35 "2016-01-25T03:46:09Z")
Apparently “roadrunner” [may have been simply translated from an earlier (?) Spanish name](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=road-runner&allowed_in_frame=0) for this bird, _correcamino_. Huh. ---
**Author:** ![Henga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Henga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Henga)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/36 "2016-01-25T04:39:25Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Only for very loose definitions of the word “road”. I don’t know the book, chapter and verse right off, but in the King James Bible there is a passage where David has returned home from one of his marauding trips against either the Philistines or King Saul and somebody asks him “where have you made a road today?”. So the word road in English isn’t limited to its dictionary meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Henga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Henga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Henga)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/37 "2016-01-25T04:40:44Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Nope - he went home to Rosita. Did he leave a forwarding address with Sylvester? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/38 "2016-01-25T06:12:36Z")
> [@Henga](#): > > I don’t know the book, chapter and verse right off, but in the King James Bible there is a passage where David has returned home from one of his marauding trips against either the Philistines or King Saul and somebody asks him “where have you made a road today?”. So the word road in English isn’t limited to its dictionary meaning. No word is limited to it’s dictionary meaning. But I’m not really going to spend any more time debating the meaning of the word “road” other than to say that if you gave an American directions somewhere by telling him to “turn right at the first road they see”, and you meant them to turn right at a 3-ft wide footpath, few, if any, would get to their intended destination. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/39 "2016-01-25T17:13:41Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > No word is limited to it’s dictionary meaning. But I’m not really going to spend any more time debating the meaning of the word “road” other than to say that if you gave an American directions somewhere by telling him to “turn right at the first road they see”, and you meant them to turn right at a 3-ft wide footpath, few, if any, would get to their intended destination. > **[Definition of ROAD](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/road)** > > roadstead —often used in plural; an open way for vehicles, persons, and animals; especially : one lying outside of an urban district : highway; roadbed… See the full definition A 3’ footpath is a road by definition. And your example is pretty poor, in that your footpath wouldn’t accommodate a vehicle but a person on foot or bicycle wouldn’t miss it. The dictionary definition of a road as being outside of an urban area is quite appropriate for this bird and makes sense in naming the bird in antiquity as well. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/40 "2016-01-25T17:18:13Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > [Road Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/road) > > A 3’ footpath is a road by definition. And your example is pretty poor, in that your footpath wouldn’t accommodate a vehicle but a person on foot or bicycle wouldn’t miss it. > > The dictionary definition of a road as being outside of an urban area is quite appropriate for this bird and makes sense in naming the bird in antiquity as well. Who said the person in my hypothetical was in a vehicle? You might want to consider how [topo maps are labeled](http://nationalmap.gov/ustopo/images/US_Topo_Map_Symbols.pdf). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095.md?page=3)