road

road, street

1. According to a law of Henry I of England (1100–35), a street was to be sufficiently broad for two loaded carts to meet and for sixteen armed knights to ride abreast. The history of road and street and of other terms such as lane, avenue, crescent, gate, place, row, terrace, rise, and vale, is extremely complicated, with fine distinctions between (for example) a wide lane and a narrow street. In current usage, a street is normally a paved way in a town or city, whereas a road is a way (paved or not) in a village or in open country. In certain fixed expressions there is inconsistency of choice, since one-way street follows the distinction just given but no through road does not (necessarily).

2. Names attached to particular roads and streets are established by custom, although it is possible to refer to something called ‘Street’ generically as a road and something called ‘Road’ as a street. Note also that a division of the carriageway of a major road (especially a motorway) is called a lane, as the frequent instruction on road signs to ‘keep in lane’ reminds us.