Pavement

I am a fan of pavements. The ‘paving’ bit comes from Latin and used to carry the idea of something beaten or trodden down. But nowadays pavments are precisely not that (think of paved and unpaved roads). Paving is put in place intentionally: pave-meant. Pavement is civilisation.

American diction is often better, and sometimes just different. But I’m much more comfortable on a pavement than I am on a more down-to-mud ‘sidewalk’.

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