Why are highways called highways? And why do we drive in parkways and park in driveways?

Asked by Yellowdog (12216

) October 26th, 2019

As a child, I thought highways were called highways because they often ran on overpasses or on elevated levees. But this isn’t the case over most of the country they run through. They are ground level roads.

So, what’s ‘high’ about them? We hear of Highways and Byways, but there are no roads called Byways. Maybe we say Hi when arriving on a highway and Bye when leaving on a byway, but again, no roads are called byway.

And the rest of the question, why are parkways for driving and driveways for parking?

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2 Answers

I would think that since roads were built up so that the rain would run off and they would stay relatively dry as compared to the surrounding terrain, they were called “high” ways.
A parkway is a “broad thoroughfare beautified with trees and turf”* like a park.
A driveway is just a plain old “passage along which vehicles or animals may be driven.”* So a driveway through your yard would be better for the yard in general if the damn cars, horses, and wagons stayed there instead of driving across the lawn.

-* with help from Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 1960 ed.

kritiper (25757

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