...From ‘hicks’ who didn’t know better to pedestrians crossing the street while disregarding traffic rules
ers” for those whho wandered about all over the road, caussing confusion amonng ndcreati other drivers ng ac an ci hatever may be our political difwalkers can also walk straight, but do ferences, all Indians have one so when or where they are not supposed thing in common: jaywalking. to). dents. S t r i c tt We are all inveterate jaywalkers. “Jay” was an insulting term in collorules, st ri ct l yy Traffic lights for pedestrians exist, but quial English for a foolish chattering enforced, aboutt are universally ignored. Oddly enough, person back in the 1500s, and in the US which side of thee though, we don’t use the word for this was used to refer to a stupid, gullible, r oad one c oull d practice – perhaps precisely because it ignorant, or provincial person, a rustic, dri ve on, put ana is so common we didn’t feel we needed a or simpleton. It seems city-dwellers end to jay driving. special word for it. assumed that those who crossed the However, jaywaalking
The word jaywalker can be traced roads when they weren’t supposed to has continued. back to 1912, when it emerged in Amerihad to be country bumpkins who didn’t In the second decaded of the can English, derived, probably, from know any better, hence “jaywalkers”. 20th century thee new term the bird of that name, the common blue The connotation of “jay” was that it “jaywalkers” emerged,merged as jay. (The theory that the term jaywalkapplied to a naïve individual, a “hick”, city councils in the US began to pass ing is derived from the shape of the letwho didn’t know the ropes of modern, ordinances to stop pedestrians crossing ter “J” to describe the erratic path a jaycivilized, urban living. the street anywhere they wanted to. walker might travel when crossing a In the early years of automobiles Apparently the rapid increase in motorroad, has been discredited, since jay- there was also the expression “jay driv- ised vehicular traffic made the adoption
The Indian tourist was surprised to be arrested for jaywalking, when that was how he had been brought up to cross the road.
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