word of the week

jaywalk (JAY-wok), verb. last week my dear friends from paris visited nyc... with my faulty french, we spent alot of time discussing a word's equivalent in our own languages. so here, in honor of them, is one of the words we encountered in our travels... "To cross a street in a reckless manner, disregarding traffic rules. As with other birds, the name jaybird denotes a naive person or simpleton. Early last century, country folks visiting big cities were often oblivious of any approaching traffic when they were crossing streets. Eventually their nickname, jays, became associated with crossing a street illegally." from wordsmith.org