Gridlock

Use this forum to discuss past Good Words.
User avatar
Dr. Goodword
Site Admin
Posts: 7417
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Contact:

Gridlock

Postby Dr. Goodword » Fri Jun 24, 2022 5:28 pm

• gridlock •


Pronunciation: grid-lahk • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass

Meaning: 1. A traffic jam involving a grid of city streets such that no movement is possible. 2. An impasse, a deadlock, a situation in which the sides cannot agree and refuse to compromise.

Image

Notes: Gridlock was created to describe traffic, but it is used most often in the context of Washington politics: political or congressional gridlock. What is congressional gridlock? Politicians make promises during their campaign, and then go to Washington and try to keep them without compromising. Today's Good Word is a lexical orphan: no derivational relatives.

In Play: The original meaning of today's word pertains to traffic: "I'm sorry I'm late. I was caught in gridlock for 30 minutes around 5th Avenue and then traffic just crawled along from there on up." As mentioned before, gridlock is associated most closely with the US congress: "The President's jobs bill was strangled in political gridlock."

Word History: Today's Good Word is unusual in that we know exactly when and where it originates. It was coined by two U.S. transportation engineers, Roy Cottam and Sam Schwartz, working for the New York Traffic Department. The term emerged during a strike by city transit workers in early 1980. According to Schwartz, "One day, Roy spoke of his fears [that] if we closed the streets in the Theater District, the grid system would 'lock-up' and all traffic would grind to a halt. Soon we simply juxtaposed the word[s], and the term gridlock was born." Grid is a clipping of griddle, formerly a diminutive of grill. English borrowed this word from Old French graille "grill, grating", a reduction of Latin craticula "small grate, grill", a diminutive of cratis "wickerwork, grate". Latin possibly inherited this word from PIE kert-/kort- "turn, wind", source also, with metathesis, of Russian krutit' "to wind, twist", Czech krut "torsion", and Serbian kretati "to move". (We don't want to leave the impression of any gridlock at alphaDictionary about showing our gratitude to Albert Skiles for suggesting today's highly topical Good Word.)
• The Good Dr. Goodword

bbeeton
Senior Lexiterian
Posts: 552
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2020 11:34 am
Location: Providence, RI

Re: Gridlock

Postby bbeeton » Fri Jun 24, 2022 7:07 pm

How delightful to illustrate today's word with a traffic jam in a roundabout, which is about as non-gridlike as I can picture in two dimensions. I suspect the tempers are raised here as much as they are in the more metaphorical context.

LukeJavan8
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 4423
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 6:16 pm
Location: Land of the Flat Water

Re: Gridlock

Postby LukeJavan8 » Sat Jun 25, 2022 12:24 pm

I most often think of the highways in Los Angeles
from movies I've seen. The scenarios keep me from
ever visiting that city.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

bbeeton
Senior Lexiterian
Posts: 552
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2020 11:34 am
Location: Providence, RI

Re: Gridlock

Postby bbeeton » Sat Jun 25, 2022 10:29 pm

I haven't been in Los Angeles for at least 20 years, but even then, the highways were awfully crowded. (I drove from LA to La Jolla on Interstate 5 the week after it opened, and it was absolutely, delightfully empty. Who would have thought it would exceed the design spec so quickly!) On the other hand, California drivers have generally been more courteous than drivers in the Northeast, so it *is* actually possible, more often than not, to cut across five lanes of traffic to get to one's intended exit. At least it was last time I was there.

David Myer
Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 1140
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:21 am
Location: Melbourne

Re: Gridlock

Postby David Myer » Thu Jun 30, 2022 6:25 am

How very perspicacious, Barbara. I missed that one myself. Of course there is no grid in a roundabout. Well spotted. Delightful indeed.


Return to “Good Word Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot], Bing [Bot], Google Adsense [Bot] and 58 guests