Ginnels, Twittens, and Other Names for Footpaths Between Buildings

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Oh, hello. This is Kristen. I’m calling from Cincinnati.

Hi, Kristen. Welcome to the show.

Hi. Well, I was just wondering, you know, I lived in the UK for many years, nearly three decades, mostly in the south of England, in Sussex.

And we had a particular word for the little footpaths, public footpaths that run between sort of houses and shops, maybe as a sort of a shortcut from one street to another, if the streets were parallel, or maybe from your street between some houses and public buildings to where the shops were or something like that.

And we called them Twittons down south. And I know up in Yorkshire, where my friends live, they call them Ginnells up there.

But since I’ve moved back to Cincinnati four years ago, I’ve noticed these around the city.

And there’s even one on my street that cuts through from my street between two houses to a park where the elementary school is.

But there aren’t any particular name for them.

And I’ve discussed this with a few of my friends.

And I was just wondering if there are any sort of regional names in the United States for those kind of public footpaths that are just shortcuts from one street to another or something like that.

Yeah, I grew up down the Ohio River a little ways from there in Louisville, and I think we just called them alleys, honestly.

Yeah, alleys.

Alleys sometimes, yeah.

Yeah, I could see that.

I mean, to me, an alley runs behind a house, and it’s actually a place where you could drive your car.

But these are strictly just for people to walk on.

Right.

I think most Americans, if they were in the U.K. and they had to name that, they would probably call it an alley, though, even if it were more formal.

But alleys take so many different kind of appearances in the United States.

So let’s spell Ginnall and Twitten for everyone.

Twitten is T-W-I-T-T-E-N from the south of England. That’s in Sussex.

And Ginnel is G-I-N-N-E-L, northern England and in Scotland.

But those aren’t the only terms for those paths in England.

There’s chair, which is C-H-A-R-E, and snicket in northern England.

Yeah, snickle wing.

Snicket I’ve heard of, yeah.

Yeah, sometimes gully or tinfoot or jennel spelled as another version of the Ginnel.

And Jigger and Jiddy.

And in Scotland, you might have a WIND, W-Y-N-D.

Oh, okay.

So there’s a bunch of them in the UK.

Yeah, I really had only ever heard Snicket.

Yeah, that’s interesting.

You know, I’m with Martha. I think we would all call it an alley, but we do have a wide variety of names for trails and paths.

And I’m thinking of the kind that are more casual and less maintained, which is why I asked you that question.

I’m thinking about things like hog paths or deer runs or pig trails, cow trails, deer trails.

So these are, even if they’re not made by those animals, they look like they were.

They’re just, you know, small paths worn by people from one place to another.

And we’ve also talked about desire paths where people cut across a lawn or, you know, a grassy area on a college campus, and that’s called a desire path.

Right.

So there’s no concrete there.

So they cut a corner off, and over time it just turns into dirt with grass on either side.

Used to, I don’t know if they still do, but in Chicago, this is a term closer to what you’re asking for, Kristen.

A passage between buildings was sometimes called a gangway in Chicago, and the Dictionary of American Regional English says it was formerly widespread.

But again, I don’t know if that’s still widely used in Chicago.

Some of our listeners will let us know, no doubt.

But again, a lot of the words that we have are about the outdoors in general and outside of urban areas.

We might find senderos in Texas or in the southwest, bahadas.

That’s interesting.

I’ve never heard any of those.

Well, trace. Let’s not forget trace.

Like trace, when you read old writing about the settlement of the West and the move westward, trace comes up again and again and again in fiction and nonfiction for paths or trails that people take.

That’s something I’ve seen here in Ohio, actually.

I never knew what it meant, but there’s sort of some housing developments and stuff around.

I’ve seen that such and such trace, like sycamore trace.

There we go.

Yeah.

It’s a path or a trail.

Kristen, that’s really interesting.

It sounds like your experience in the U.K. versus your experience in the U.S. is going to generate a lot of questions that we would love to hear in the future.

So keep our phone number handy, will you?

Okay.

Thank you.

It’s a very interesting show.

I really enjoy it.

Thank you.

Bye.

Be well.

Thanks.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

What do you call those paths in your part of the country? Let us know, 877-929-9673, or send us your thoughts about language to words@waywordradio.org.