# 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:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**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, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/41 "2016-01-25T17:31:13Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > 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). Hence why I said you wouldn’t miss it outside a vehicle. ---
**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, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/42 "2016-01-25T17:37:32Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Hence why I said you wouldn’t miss it outside a vehicle. Emphasis added. I would. And so would most regular Americans. I know it’s popular on this MB to stake out some obscure position for pedantic reasons, but it’s ludicrous to think that most Americans would see a footpath and think of it as a road. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/43 "2016-01-25T17:41:13Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I know it’s popular on this MB to stake out some obscure position for pedantic reasons It certainly is. :rolleyes: ---
**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, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/44 "2016-01-25T17:45:52Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace;] […] it’s ludicrous to think that most Americans would see a footpath and think of it as a road. [/QUOTE] But is it “ludicrous” to think that most Americans would read a sentence like _“There have been roads there for as long as there have been people”_ and not immediately understand the appropriate sense of “road” in this context? I don’t think it is. > [@John Mace](#): > > I know it’s popular on this MB to stake out some obscure position for pedantic reasons Actually, **John** , in this case I think that pedantic obscurantist was you, when **Chronos** made the above-quoted perfectly reasonable statement and you gratuitously snarked his entirely justifiable use of the word “road”. ---
**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, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/45 "2016-01-25T17:53:58Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > But is it “ludicrous” to think that most Americans would read a sentence like _“There have been roads there for as long as there have been people”_ and not immediately understand the appropriate sense of “road” in this context? I don’t think it is. > Actually, **John** , in this case I think that pedantic obscurantist was you, when **Chronos** made the above-quoted perfectly reasonable statement and you gratuitously snarked his entirely justifiable use of the word “road”. Holy Mother of God, all I said was that you’d have to use a rather loose definition of the word “road” to make that work. What’s so snarky about that? A loose definition-- i.e., one that most Americans would not use, unlike the Old English definition you offered. Seriously, though, anyone interested in further debate on this, I’ll be happy to continue… in one of the debate forums. ---
**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, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/46 "2016-01-25T18:12:21Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Holy Mother of God, all I said was that you’d have to use a rather loose definition of the word “road” to make that work. Which, given that most Americans are perfectly familiar with the appropriate meaning of the word “road” in a pre-modern context, was rather pointlessly pedantic of you. > [@John Mace](#): > > What’s so snarky about that? You’re right, what you did was more gratuitous **nitpicking** than gratuitous **snarking** , and I hereby substitute the former term for the latter in my criticism. [QUOTE=John Mace] A loose definition-- i.e., one that most Americans would not use, unlike the Old English definition you offered. [/QUOTE] No, you’re still mixing up “definition” and “etymology”. I gave the appropriate modern **definition** of the word “road” in the sense that **Chronos** was using it—i.e., “_designated pathway for people to travel on_”, which IMO most Americans are perfectly capable of understanding in the appropriate context—and threw in its Old English **etymology** as background information. If I had known including the etymology would confuse you so, I would have left it out. ---
**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, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/47 "2016-01-25T19:14:34Z")
Aside from that whole semantic debate, I’m not sure there were even footpaths for as long as there were humans in the area. Remember that the first inhabitants would have been nomadic, hunter/gatherers living in a dessert environment. Nomads in that type of area wouldn’t necessarily have established paths of migrations, but might navigate their travels by landmarks. I think it would be more accurate to say that we really don’t know exactly what existing in the area “for as long as there have been people” there. That is, if the assumption is that whoever lived there would have a similar reason to call that bird a “roadrunner” in whatever language the spoke. I’m assuming that’s why **Chronos** brought up what he did, but if that isn’t so, perhaps he can explain what he meant. ---
**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, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/48 "2016-01-25T21:17:36Z")
The ancient Celts had a trackway from modern Canterbury through modern Westminster in London to modern St. Albans. Under the Romans the route was extended to Channel and passed through Londinium so the route became a Roman road. Under the Saxons the route was extended into Wales and given a name that has been modernized as Watling Street even though much of the route goes through rural countryside rather than urban settlements. Maybe the roadrunners used to be streetrunners? English is too complicated to know for sure. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/49 "2016-01-25T23:29:05Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > “Chaparral” describes a kind of landscape, which to my knowledge also does not occur in Arizona. As **Colibri** notes, that is correct - Chaparral refers specifically to a type of shrubland which occurs in California and Baja California. But the term is commonly used for a wide variety of other shrub/scrub lands as well. Even by such sources as this Arizona edu ag extension page talking about “Arizona’s Interior Chaparral”: > **[Home](https://cales.arizona.edu/)** > > The University of Arizona’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences cultivates leaders in science, health, sustainability, business, and agriculture. Explore CALS programs. Not to mention all the “Chaparral” this and that names for things in Az. They probably needn’t have imported the term. It might already have been getting applied to the kind of desert scrublands the roadrunners were running through, correctly or incorrectly. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095/50 "2016-01-26T00:32:30Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > 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. “camino” originates from a way or path or trail you walk (_caminar_: to walk), in both the literal and figurative senses, but by the time modern Spanish came along it extended to roads and streets and generally the overland way between any two points. (“Por el polvoriento camino de Córdoba a Sevilla” - Along the dusty way from Cordoba to Seville ; “los caminos de Dios” - the paths of God) As in “avocado” vs. “alligator pear”, “roadrunner” vs. “Chaparral cock” or “ground cuckoo” would be a very elegant adoption of a derivation/translation of a loanword over a quite awkward English construction. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-roadrunners-used-to-be-called/744095.md?page=2)