The world's first subway (i.e. underground rapid transit) was in London. But they don't call it a subway at all in London. The call it the Underground or the Tube. (Someone once told me that the word "subway" in England refers to underground walking tunnels, but I don't feel confident enough in that factoid to present it as an unqualified declarative statement.)
So how did the subway get to be called the subway in North America? They speak English in London, what made them decide to NOT use the English word coined for the first-ever one and instead coin their own word?
I've already looked in the OED and it was unhelpful.
5 comments:
I have no useful information on the question at hand, but the factoid is totally correct, subways are essentially underpasses over that side of the pond.
This is all I found, without, you know, leaving the house. Or my chair.
My guess: in 1869, per Wikipedia, a demonstration transit line ran about 300 ft. underneath the street simply called Broadway in New York City. The name of Broadway itself is a translation of 'Breede Weg' from the earlier Dutch settlement.
SUBterrainean railWAY. At one time "subway" was also commonly used for what we now generally call an underpass (where a road travels beneath another road or railway).
Yeah, I got that far from the OED, but what made them choose to use a different word rather than using the same word they used in London?
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