This week’s theme
British streets that became words

This week’s words
Coronation Street
stepney
Pepper Alley
Carnaby
Acacia Avenue


This week’s comments
AWADmail 1041

Next week’s theme
Eponyms

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(uh-KAY-shuh AV-uh-nyoo)

MEANING:

noun: The middle class.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Acacia Avenue, a common name of streets in the UK. Earliest documented use: 1919.

NOTES:

Dozens of streets in the UK have the name Acacia Avenue. There was a British film with the title 29 Acacia Avenue. The British heavy-metal band Iron Maiden has a song titled “22 Acacia Avenue”. A somewhat similar US term is Main Street, embodying the middle class in America.
A BBC article discussing Acacia Avenue said, “Two-thirds live in a three-bed semi ...” Why would two out of three people in the UK live in a tractor trailer, I wondered. Then I realized a semi in the UK has a different meaning from the semi in the US. The article also said, “In a social survey by the AA, in which researchers visited 15 of the 60-odd Acacia Avenues ...” Again, why would Alcoholics Anonymous survey people living on Acacia Avenues? Nope! AA is Automobile Association in the UK. What was that about two countries separated by a common language?

USAGE:

“Could Acacia Avenue boycott the paper of the noughties if it gets too naughty?”
Roy Greenslade; Mail Domination; The Guardian (London, UK); Jun 6, 2005.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: