On the street where you live

I have often wondered about the distinction between a street, a road, a lane etc, so this challenge prompted me to look it up.

As far as I can tell, in England as opposed to elsewhere in the world, the word Street came from the Latin strata - which meant paved road.

Road came from the middle English "rad" meaning to ride (in one of its forms) or quick (in another)

Not to be put off I dug deeper, and have decided (for my own benefit) a rough guide is that streets are associated with towns, whereas roads apply to the country

BUT one talks about Village Streets, and indeed straggling villages were often called Streets, which led to such names as Stretton - not to mention Street.

And this doesn't help with old Roman Roads with names such as Watling Street.

My interest was piqued because we live in a village, so according to ancient wisdom we live on a street, but the Post Office call it a Road whereas local maps refer to it as a Lane... both with a different name.

Are you surprised that deliverymen can never find us???

I'm amazed I can find my way home from the pub, and that's just over the road...street...lane...

Whatever.

As far as I can tell, the currently accepted official basis for names is that roads are for travelling along, streets are where one lives and lanes are for walking on.

But I could be wrong.

And let's not get into Avenues, Closes and Drives or we'll just end up going round in Circles.