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laneway
DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)
Spelling variants:lane-way
n.
an alley in an urban area.
Type: 2. Preservation — Laneway may be a preservation from Irish English. The 1873 quotation, from the Canadian publication The True Witness and Catholic Chronicle, is a reprint from an Irish newspaper. The earliest OED-3 quotation is dated 1882, from London, England (s.v. "lane-way"). Furthermore, of the 30 instances of the term with this meaning in the London Times Archives, 24 were about Ireland, the earliest of which dated to 1858 (21 of these had an Irish dateline). Only six were not about Ireland, the earliest, isolated citation dating from 1928, with the five subsequent citations all dating from after 1980. EDD labels its entry for laneway as County Mayo, Ireland (see EDD, s.v. "lane" [1.] in comp. [2]). Laneway continues to enjoy a high prevalence in Ireland, although internet searches show that the term is today more prevalent in Canada, and quite frequent in Australia (see Chart 1).
In 19th-century Ireland, laneway designated any type of alley or lane, whether in the city or country. In Canada, over the course of the 20th century, the term has undergone a semantic change, and now denotes a narrow city street (a back alley); see the 1923 quotation from Toronto. It is therefore both a Preservation from Irish English (Type 2) and a Semantic Change in Canadian English (Type 3).
COD-2, s.v. "laneway" [2], marks the meaning as "Cdn".
In 19th-century Ireland, laneway designated any type of alley or lane, whether in the city or country. In Canada, over the course of the 20th century, the term has undergone a semantic change, and now denotes a narrow city street (a back alley); see the 1923 quotation from Toronto. It is therefore both a Preservation from Irish English (Type 2) and a Semantic Change in Canadian English (Type 3).
COD-2, s.v. "laneway" [2], marks the meaning as "Cdn".
See: laneway house
Quotations
1873
[Her efforts were, however, not without result, for the noise she made was heard without, and she saw in the bright moonlight Ned Fennell, gesticulating and signing at her from the lonely laneway which ran at the back of the Roost, on which the window looked.]
1888
She shook off her weakness again and struck off at a rapid rate, keeping straight in the middle of the laneway and heedless of the pools of rain water that marked each stage of the declivity and of the rough boulders that often bruised her feet.
1896
The City Engineer in his fortnightly report objects to the city assuming a 50 feet laneway proposed to be handed over by property owners on Macpherson avenue and Boxborough street.
1901
I may go further and say that the company is now willing as soon as the bridge question is settled to dedicate, free of charge, a 66-foot roadway as far north as the company\'s lands go and also to dedicate a 20-foot laneway controlled by the company and running north to the township roads.
1904
[\"]The firemen on the outside, throwing streams from the narrow laneway, heard our calls for help.[\"]
1923
Juryman: "Do you know if this is a laneway or a street?" Mr Murphy: "It is a laneway, and has not been opened as a street. Application has been made."
1950
They open even the most innocent-looking letters with trembling hands, and if some one happens to nod in their direction as they walk along the street they are inclined to shy off with a start and go galloping up the nearest laneway or even down one of the entrances to the subway.
1978
Soft Rock's noise level was about the 45 decibel point for the residential zone across the laneway, but the cafe was under the 65 point reading for the commercial zone it was on.
1991
The bylaw deliberately attempts to smooth out the cost of neighborhood improvements across the city. What is lost on a sidewalk in Brentwood is made up for in a laneway in Abbeydale.
2007
Clifford Charles Hamilton, 46, was killed in a laneway behind the 2500 block of 56th Street N.E. shortly after 4 a.m. Friday.
References
- EDD
- COD-2
- OED-3
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