[Vocabulary] Thoroughfare vs. Highway

[beachboy]

What's the difference between a thoroughfare and a highway?

 

[Rover_KE]

What differences have you found in dictionaries? [link]

 

[beachboy]

The problem is that, sometimes, dictionaries say that a word means A, but it doesn't say that it doesn't mean B. Furthermore, besides not mentioning the difference between two words clearly, sometimes, in everyday English, words are used in a different way from what appears in dictionaries.

 

[jutfrank]

You have to be clearer about the question. Are you talking about the essential meaning that the words have or just about how they are used differently?

For me, those are two quite distinct questions.

 

[beachboy]

Both the meaning and how they are used. In other words, any difference between the words.

 

[GoesStation]

Thoroughfare is a legal term not often used in everyday English.

 

[Tdol]

Do you use thoroughfare in AmE? We do use it in BrE, but only in restricted contexts like town planning and legal rights.

 

[GoesStation]

Do you use thoroughfare in AmE? We do use it in BrE, but only in restricted contexts like town planning and legal rights.

That's the context you're most likely to see it in in American English. The examples listed at onelook.com demonstrate that it is sometimes used to mean "major road" in other contexts.

 

[SoothingDave]

There was a local supermarket chain called "Thorofare" when I was a boy. It's probably the last time I used that word.

 

[jutfrank]

If it is even useful to speak about difference in meaning as opposed to use, I'll point out that thoroughfare has a basic sense of a passage between two different parts of a town whereas highway has a basic sense of a passage between two different towns.

In other words, a highway is not primarily built to get you from one neighbourhood of a town to another, and a thoroughfare won't you get you to the next town.

 

[beachboy]

And what's a more commonly used word for thoroughfare?

 

[jutfrank]

The first two that come to mind: street/avenue

 

[GoesStation]

Major road is another possibility in American English.

 

[jutfrank]

Major road is another possibility in American English.

As opposed to, say, backstreet?

Do you think that you would not think of a minor road as a thoroughfare? I was just wondering this myself.

 

[GoesStation]

Do you think that you would not think of a minor road as a thoroughfare? I was just wondering this myself.

The samples at onelook.com all use it for major roads, which is how I think of the word in everyday use. I think in legal uses it may be equivalent to right-of-way, meaning any public roadway.

 

[jutfrank]

The samples at onelook.com all use it for major roads

It's just that I have quite strongly in mind the collocations major thoroughfare and main thoroughfare. The latter of these is particularly well represented in the British National Corpus, and even more well represented in the COCA.

Other collocations seems to be busy, narrow and wide.

(I'd post links to the corpora, but you need an account now.)

 

[emsr2d2]

Hmm, COCA certainly looks different from the last time I looked but I didn't need an account to simply search a word. Here's the result of simply searching "thoroughfare".

 

[jutfrank]

Hmm, COCA certainly looks different from the last time I looked but I didn't need an account to simply search a word.

Oh, really? I can't get any results without logging in.

Here's the result of simply searching "thoroughfare".

When you post a link, it goes to the search page, not to the results page. Plus, on the search page the search box appears empty.

 

[emsr2d2]

Hmm, that is strange. I clicked on my own link and it did indeed take me to the main page, but I was still able to enter a word into the Search box and click "Find matching strings".

 

[jutfrank]

but I was still able to enter a word into the Search box and click "Find matching strings".

Sorry, I wasn't clear. That's what I meant. I was just saying that you have to enter the word yourself.

(Is anybody else always asked to sign in in order to get results?)