Why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?

Roxanne33

Taken from a forum on this great metaphysical question: For the same reason that apartments are called apartments when they are really not apart. Why is a building called a building, and not a built, they are done being built, right. Why is up up, and why is down down. Will we ever know? On a more serious note : The words 'drive' and 'park' existed long before automobiles were ever invented. These are not words created to describe the actions of your car, but rather words which already had meanings and were adapted to describe a new innovation. Since people don't park on parkways, isn't it likely that some other meaning of the word park (i.e. place of recreation) is the root of the word? May 16 02, 4:51 PM

The Gorm

Only in America! May 16 02, 6:13 PM

Gnomon

I don't know why people drive on parkways, as we haven't got parkways in Europe. Driveways were originally a way by which people could drive up to a house from the public road. This would originally have been driving in a horse and carriage rather than a car. At the end of the driveway, there would be a stable, coachhouse or garage and this is where the carriage or car would be parked. People only started parking in the driveway when they needed the space taken up by the garage to live in. Even in the 1960s, most people with cars had garages attached to their house and wouldn't have dreamed of parking in the driveway. But as more people converted their garage into extra rooms for the house and more people bought a second or even third car, the practise of parking in the driveway started. May 27 02, 1:22 PM

zbeckabee

BRY2K replies: From "The Straight Dope": Let's get one thing cleared up right off the bat: you can drive on the driveway. Indeed, if you'll permit me to wax philosophical for a moment, this is the very essence of drivewayness--to enable you to drive from the street to your garage. Moreover, you can park on the parkway, if you're willing to risk the wrath of the law. I don't know that this clarifies things much, but it seemed like a point worth making. I think the crux of the issue, however--I love using words like crux--is the dual meaning of "park." Park in the sense of tended greenery and park in the sense of stowing your vehicle, though deriving from the same root, diverged in meaning long ago. In Old French, a parc was an enclosure. To this day a military park means an area where vehicles are stored and serviced. As early as 1812 there was a verb "to park," meaning to store one's howitzers in a military park. This carried over to carriages and ultimately to any sort of vehicle. Our notion of landscaped parks, meanwhile, derives from the medieval practice of enclosing game preserves for the use of the aristocracy. The term was later applied to the grounds around a country estate, then to royal parks in London to which the proles were grudgingly admitted, and finally to any landscaped public grounds. The idea of enclosure is still evident in expressions like "ball park," for an enclosed playing field. http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_080.html Jul 21 08, 10:22 AM

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