I had a friend who lived on Pfaffenwilerweg (weg = way), also known as route de Pfaffenwil. But I think that, even in the US, you might find “route” used somewhere, if it was a numbered route.
Ah, and I do know people who get their mail delivered to, like, 1234 RFD. Which I believe stands for Rural Free Delivery. I think they technically have street addresses as well, but I’m not totally sure.
To be completely candid and to give credit where credit is due, it was
What is my address?
started 06-03-2011, 05:16 PM by Fubaya and this post …
… that gave me the idea for this thread.
It’s rewarding that so many people share a fascination for the topic.
We have “Little River Turnpike” here in Virginia, but it hasn’t been a toll road since the early 1800’s (it’s now free, supported by the State from tax money).
When I lived in Japan, I lived at the corner of a dori and a street with no name. (I think U2 wrote a song about that.)
Ing = former water meadow
Land of green Ginger
Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate
Dock, lots of places with that in the title
Green, as in village green etc
Staithe = river or marine loading wharfe
Wharfe
Hard - as in Plymouth Hard, Admirals Hard, or Portsmouth hard
Lake
A lot of the streets in my town are Spanish in origin, but they usually Street or Avenue. My own street, let’s call it Del Perro to be slightly secretive, has 3 versions in town.
Del Perro Avenue.
Salida Del Perro.
Calle Del Perro.
Let’s see, I can also think of:
Alameda
Avenida
Circle
Bouldevard
Camino
Drive
Terrace
Can’t believe you didn’t mention Hoe – as in Plymouth Hoe here.
I live on a “Trail”
I used to live on a “Bay” - as in Anderson Bay. It was the equivalent of Curve or Crescent.
Having delivered mail once, and now having walked my dog on every street in my local area, names are not chose randomly. “Courts” are always cul de sacs. “Commons” are roads that go through private developments - I see no one has listed them yet.
Where I grew up in Bayside Queens, NS roads wore streets and EW roads were avenues, but if for some reason there were additional streets between two consecutively numbered avenues, (like 45th and 46th) the first would be a Road and the second a Drive.
We also have “Tobacco Quay” in Alexandria, VA.
My wife’s sister was born and bred in Maryland but has been living in Illinois for the last 12 years.
We go out to visit and while she’s driving us from the airport, a route she’s not 100% familiar with, she says, “I know there’s a frontage road around here I have to take.”
My wife and I were both, “What the hell is a frontage road?”
Sis-in-law explained it’s a midwest term for any old back road.
Got it.
Later at the rent-a-car place, the guy asks me if I knew my way back and I asked him to give me a quick run-down. First thing he tells me is to take the frontage road from here and blah, blah, blah.
I take the road in question and get hopelessly lost in about 15 minutes. U-turn and trace the route back and eventually find my way home only to recount the tale to brother-in-law who explains what happened.
Evidently a frontage road isn’t simply a back road but what we in Maryland call an access road, among other things, which runs parallel with a major highway.
All the same, I figured I had learned something new. Sort of.
Straat
Laan
Boulevard
Weg
Pad
Not in this Midwesterner’s experience.
That I agree with.
Not to mention the Dulles Toll Road and the Dulles Greenway, both of which are toll roads.
Across the river in MD is the Baltimore-Washington (B-W) Parkway. I’m not sure what its proper name is supposed to be, but everyone I know calls it the B-W Parkway or just the Parkway or the B-W.
In Canada, I saw “rue <something> street”
In the North East of England, ‘Wynd’ is used for a street that isn’t straight but in the rest of the UK (possible exception of Scotland) you’d never come across this usage. ‘Chare’ is a lane. ‘Grove’ is upmarket.
I’ve heard the term in other places. In New York, this was called a service road, running parallel to an expressway. I lived on one, and in fact they changed my street name to the name of the expressway which they dug across the street from my house.
The service road name applies to similar roads in Montgomery and Huntsville (and no doubt other places) in Alabama.
The street we lived on when I was in high school ran four blocks. They used those concrete street markers on each of the five corners, and on three of them our street was ______ St and the other two _____ Ave. We got mail delivered for both. In fact, we got mail delivered to ______ without St or Ave. That was back when postal workers would actually think about what they were doing.
Speaking of which, do y’all remember the thing about a letter being properly delivered to:
Wood
John
Mass