We were in the car heading toward Palo Alto when I brought up the old bromide that in the English language, a person drives on a parkway and parks on a driveway. Immediately, my fellow-passengers began to list other roadways that contained the element ”way.” Highway, superhighway, freeway (and its opposite, tollway) came immediately to mind. Then came throughway, expressway (called in England ‘dual carriageway’), broadway, runway, pathway, footway, byway, subway, tramway, and skyway. After a while, some less common words arrived: gangway, passageway, arborway (Boston only, as far as I know; Boston has also given us fenway), fairway, alleyway and causeway. To what cause does a causeway subscribe? None; the word ultimately derives from Latin calx, limestone. As we came closer to home: doorway, hallway, archway, entranceway, stairway, breezeway.
Ah, wellaway, there must be many others.
Well, why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway? Hey, why does your nose run and your feet smell? Why is catnapping pleasurable but kidnapping reprehensible? It’s the way of language; it’s wordway.
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