Shawn, who lives in Washington State, is used to hearing the phrase right up your alley to describe something that’s particularly fitting for someone. Then she heard a British vlogger use the phrase right up your street in the same way. Since the early 1900s, the phrases right up one’s alley, or right down one’s alley, or the more old-fashioned in one’s street, all mean pretty much the same thing. They suggest the idea of a place that’s quite familiar, like an alley near your home. In its original sense, alley meant a wide space lined with trees, deriving from the French allée. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Down Your Alley, Up Your Street”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hey, Martha. Hey, Grant. How are you guys today? My name is Shawn and I’m calling from Washington State.
Welcome. What can we do for you?
So I was wondering about the phrase right up your alley to describe something that somebody in particular that you have in mind would be fond of. I was just watching a YouTube channel, a blogger specifically who does reviews for clothing, websites, things like that. And she’s a British blogger, and she said, right up your street. And I’ve never heard it said that way. And I’ve heard the phrase my whole life just as right up your alley. So I was kind of wondering about the difference there.
Not much, really. They’re both used on both sides of the Atlantic or throughout the English-speaking world, and they have about the same history, both right up or down one’s alley or one’s street. Or sometimes it’s to be in one’s street. That’s more old-fashioned. Date to the early 1900s. And before that, people might have said something else, like, it’s not my cup of tea or it is my cup of tea. Or like right up my alley would be like in my wheelhouse.
Yeah. Like something I know how to do really well.
Yeah, something I know how to do, yeah. And they both come from this idea that if something is in your neighborhood, literally in real life, you’re probably familiar with it. Like, you know the neighbors, you know the park, you know the shop on the corner, that sort of thing. So if it’s in your street or in your, think of an alley, not like this ugly, dark place that’s scary and filled with trash. Think of the alley as maybe your back door lets out on an alley and you have a porch out there and it’s where you store your bicycles, that sort of alley, like an active, lively place that people pass through.
Right. Well, and I even found it interesting just because I think of an alley as more of a narrow pathway whereas a street is more broad. So I thought maybe there was something there as far as it being specific to a particular person that you have in mind. But it sounds like it’s kind of just right in line with all those other things you guys mentioned, cups of tea, things like that.
Yeah, the alley is interesting because in American uses, in some cities, it is very restricted to that space between buildings that has the trash cans in it and you otherwise wouldn’t go. But in the original sense an alley was a wide street that was lined with trees and it comes from the French allee and they still use it in French in that way and so there are still in parts of this country and throughout the English-speaking world alleys that are nothing like the trash can little crevice that you might have in a urban city.
Well thanks so much you guys. I listen to you all the time here at my office at work so we love your show and you guys are great.
Our show is right up your alley is what you’re saying, right? You have an affinity for it.
Well, you’re our cup of tea too, Sean. Thanks for calling.
Thanks, guys. Have a good day.
Bye, Sean.
We know there’s a word or phrase you’ve been kicking around in your workplace. We’d love to talk with you about it, so call us 877-929-9673 or send it to us in email. That address is words@waywordradio.org.
