The Broncks', the borough of my childhood, fades away

David Donnell David.Donnell at EARTHLINK.NET
Wed Dec 5 17:03:51 UTC 2007


The NYC street I live on is widely known as "the Bowery", but the
official street name is just "Bowery".

Google results:

      27,600 for "on Bowery"
      153,000 for "on the Bowery"

Myself, I tend to say "I live on Bowery", but I have no real
preference. (OTOH, I used to live in the Bronx, and couldn't imagine
ever saying "I used to live in Bronx.")

Also, I'm not aware of any other NYC street names that are just one
word--Bowery has no "Street" or "Avenue", etc, as part of the name.

The origin of "Bowery", if I remember correctly: it comes from a
Dutch word for "farm". (Related to the English word "bovine", I
think). Back in the days when this city was called New Amsterdam, the
street was a cow path leading up to Gov. Peter Stuyvesant's farm
around what is now 14th Street.

Corrections welcome.

DD
Missourian in NYC


At 12:46 PM -0800 12/3/07, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>On Dec 3, 2007, at 12:05 PM, Joel Berson wrote:
>
>>  Well, it's happening.  In the Boston Globe today (Dec. 3), in the
>>  article "Lone 'boy' on campus", by Keith O'Brien (B1), about the only
>>  male attending Wellesley College this fall, O'Brien writes
>>  "[Mohammad] Usman, who grew up in Bronx, N.Y., has come to Wellesley
>>  on a semester-long exchange program."
>>
>>  Safire would be distressed -- as I am.
>
>regrettably large number of hits for {"in Bronx NY"}, not to mention
>in other contexts.
>
>i've said on Language Log that familiarity tends to breed
>anarthrousness.  in this case, i suspect that unfamiliarity is
>breeding anarthrousness.
>
>arnold

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