I was tickled to read on Reuter’s site today that there’s a new dictionary of regional American English in which there are several words to denote the gap between the ‘sidewalk’ and the ‘curb’. Excuse me? One for Bearsy methinks.
Stop it!
I was tickled to read on Reuter’s site today that there’s a new dictionary of regional American English in which there are several words to denote the gap between the ‘sidewalk’ and the ‘curb’. Excuse me? One for Bearsy methinks.
Boadicea's Chariot 
“Sidewalk” as opposed to front walk or back walk? Surely they mean “pavement”.
And what do they mean by “curb”, it must be “kerb”.
Exactly.
I found it difficult to ‘kerb’ my enthusiasm when reading this.
“A curb, or kerb (British English, see spelling differences), is the edge where a raised pavement/sidewalk/footpath, road median, or road shoulder meets an unraised street or other roadway.”
As far as I can tell, there is no gap between the two, whatever you call them or however you spell them.
One curbs one’s enthusiasm to step off the kerb in the face of oncoming traffic – I think.
OZ
The sidewalk ( where people walk on the side of the road, amazing what?) here is usually separated from the pavement (that’s the PAVED part where people drive cars) by the curb and then almost inevitably a narrow grassed or paved strip of land (belonging usually, not to the homeowner whose land it abuts (love that word) it, but the local AUTHORITY (council, township, city etc.)
Said strip also called the verge, city grass, devil’s strip, nature strip, parking strip, planting strip, sidewalk buffer, tree belt, tree lawn, utility strip, parkway etc. is there to keep the pedestrians away from the passing traffic, road spray etc.and provide space to place one’s trash and recycling containers for pickup. In many cases it also has buried beneath it the services for the community, gas, water, electricity, sewers etc. (The English however seem to have perfected the system of burying said services under the traveled roadway requiring frequent traffic disruption for repairs)
Such strips are ubiquitous and obviously so common as to be scarcely noticed by many, (especially visitors perhaps?), Part of my obligation as a homeowner is that I have to keep this strip tidy and mowed even though it is not my property.
Yes, It does need a word of it’s own.
Thank you LW. I am now enlightened.
But curb ain’t right.:-(
Well done LW.
The only thing to be added is that there is an interesting element of class to this. Towns and areas of gentility always have this facility and the lower down the socio economic scale, the less likely they are to be found.
Does not exist in really rural areas at all, but then no one walks down roads in rural areas!
LW – No, no, no, no, no! You’ve been away too long. The pavement is the paved area upon which pedestrians walk, taking care to avoid the cracks if they are under ten-years-old. The pavement is edged by the kerb which separates it from the road or street and which curbs pedestrians’ desires to leap out in front of a truck.
OZ
Pavements? Sidewalks?
We don’t have them! Well nowhere outside the city centre.
Just a grass verge (in my case ±5 meters) from my boundary to the road. As LW states, my responsibility to maintain it.
Pedestrians walk on it, except in wet weather or just after, when it could be slippery underfoot then they walk in the road!
LW, “the pavement (that’s the PAVED part where people drive cars)” – as OZ says, not in the English-speaking world it ain’t. Pavements here are often made with paving slabs – concrete squares – and edged with stone kerbs (sic).
The bit in between the pavement and the kerb is oten grassed over and then soiled with dogsh*t.