tree lawns; was Re: Off and on
Laurence Horn
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Thu Sep 22 14:01:31 UTC 2011
On Sep 22, 2011, at 9:54 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> At 9/22/2011 01:33 AM, Paul Johnston wrote:
>> ... As I say, in New Jersey, there was no term, though my
>> neighborhood had sidewalks, and so, there was a tree lawn/parkway/berm.
>
> Nor do I, grown in NYC and living in New England, have a term.
Right; I have a similar background and was disconcerted to see that Bert Vaux's otherwise very useful survey page doesn't have an entry for *my* favored term, i.e. "the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the curb". I will concede that "tree lawn", "berm", et al. are a bit more concise.
LH, recalling an abortive attempt to popularize the label "dog-turd strip" in the old pre-pooper-scooper era
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list