Re: Coming Down the Pike
Posted by ESC on March 10, 2000 In Reply to: Coming Down the Pike or Pipe
posted by Holly on March 10, 2000
: Which one is it and where does it come from?
Here's what I found in "Hog on Ice" by Charles Earle Funk. "to
go up (or down) the pike - We use this so commonly in America to
mean up or down the road that we never stop to inquire the source."
Mr. Funk says "pike" is a shorten form of "turnpike." Turnpike roads
were common up to the middle of the last century and could be built
by a private individual, a community or government. ".They were
toll roads, the cost of maintenance paid from the tolls of those
using the road. But what we today call 'tollgates' were then called
'turnpikes,' a name that itself had long ceased to have any of the
original sense. The first turnpikes were really rotating constructions
upon which pikes or sharpened rods were mounted. They were effective
barriers until the fare of a horseman or coach had been paid, and
were then probably rolled or turned out of the way."
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