Amethyst
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2008
- Messages
- 12,668
That's interesting. I remember figuring out that a "terraced house" in England was similar to what's called a "row house" here. In the U.S., row houses are found in cities, and "town houses" became the term for row houses built outside of cities, where suburban land for houses was getting expensive. (Naturally there are exceptions to these usages - it's a big country).
I thought the word "terrace" might refer to the fact that in England, such houses seem usually to be built along a sloping street, so their roofs are at increasing heights.
It was fun seeing how English and American speakers used slightly different words to mean the same thing (e.g. "still" instead of "pause" for the act of stopping on a particular scene in a video).
Apologies to OP for slightly jacking the thread. I will now depart, taking my etymological urges with me.
Amethyst
I thought the word "terrace" might refer to the fact that in England, such houses seem usually to be built along a sloping street, so their roofs are at increasing heights.
It was fun seeing how English and American speakers used slightly different words to mean the same thing (e.g. "still" instead of "pause" for the act of stopping on a particular scene in a video).
Apologies to OP for slightly jacking the thread. I will now depart, taking my etymological urges with me.
Amethyst
Very common terms in England in the 60's and 70's were terraced houses, semi detached houses and detached houses.
We finally made it into a detached house for the first time in our lives in 1985. Our parents never made it out of terraced houses or semi detached, nor have my 2 sisters.