Q: I am English and I don’t understand why Americans say “horseback riding.” In England, we just say “riding” or “horse riding.” It’s taken for granted that the back is the place of choice. I don’t know why it bothers me so much.
A: The term “horseback” is very old, and published references go back to the late 1300s, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. You can find it used as a noun, which sounds very odd to modern ears, and even as a verb. More commonly, it has been used as an adverb or adjective. Here’s an OED citation from 1390: “This knight, whiche hoved and abode Embuisshed upon horsebake.”
Now, to your question. The expressions “horseback ride” and “horseback riding,” according to the OED, are now “used chiefly in U.S.; in England, ride, riding are understood to be on horseback, unless otherwise expressed or implied, as ‘a ride in a wagon,’ ‘a bicycle ride.’ “
I haven’t found any reason for this difference in contemporary usage. It’s been my experience, though, that horsem*n and horsewomen in the U.S. use “ride” and “riding” the same way they’re used in the U.K. Non-riders or occasional riders in the U.S. are more likely to refer to “horseback riding.”
Sidewalk was first used as a word in the 18th century [source], but the etymology is a little harder to come by. It's simply stated as coming from a combination of side and walk.
In the US, the word sidewalk refers to a paved path that people can walk along the side of a road. In the UK, the words pavement or footpath are more likely to be used instead.
It is called a sidewalk in American English, but can also be called a pavement (mainly British English and South African English), a footpath (Australian English, Irish English, Indian English and New Zealand English) or footway (Engineering term).
A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English), footpath in Australia, India, New Zealand and Ireland, or footway is a path along the side of a road. Usually constructed of concrete, pavers, brick, stone, or asphalt, it is designed for pedestrians.
The first known sidewalks were laid in central Anatolia around 2000 B.C. — a millennium or two after the invention of the wheel, according to the book “Sidewalks: Conflict and Negotiation over Public Space.” They remained rare luxuries in most of the world until the 19th century, when big cities like London and Paris ...
The earliest known use of the noun sidewalk is in the late 1500s. OED's earliest evidence for sidewalk is from 1598, in the writing of John Florio, author and teacher of languages. sidewalk is formed within English, by compounding.
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