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I am not native English speaker. May I ask you a question. I want to make an appointment with my friend at one particular end of a street. In my language we use two words to differentiate the two ends of a street, translated into English as "the head of the street" and the "tail of the street". What words do you use? Thank you.

Dang Ngoc Tran
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  • We don't have very standardized terms for the two ends of the street, though we sometimes use "head", as you do. The other end, the tail, we might simply call "the end" or "the far end". I personally have not encountered "the tail of the street". One big obstacle to locating proper terms is that street ends are usually considered symmetric, and there's often no way to distinguish which end should be nominated the "beginning" or "head" vs "the end" or "tail". Depending on which way you're walking, the labels could completely legitimately be flipped (unless it's a cul-de-sac or something). – Dan Bron May 06 '16 at 17:12
  • @DanBron That sounds like an answer to me. – DJClayworth May 06 '16 at 17:14
  • @DJClayworth Feel free to make it into one! (If you can dig up the citations, etc.) – Dan Bron May 06 '16 at 17:17
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    I usually don't worry about citations on this site, especially for answers indicating that something doesn't exist. – DJClayworth May 06 '16 at 17:19
  • @DJClayworth I personally feel somewhat uncomfortable posting answers based on nothing but my own opinions or experiences, but as I said, if you want to make an answer based on my comment, I'm perfectly fine with that. Answer as you would like. No need to credit me or even mention my name. – Dan Bron May 06 '16 at 17:22

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I believe the fancy term used in place of end in transportation is terminus, but to distinguish between one end and the other, you generally specify a direction, e.g., northern terminus or southern terminus. But unless your friend is a transportation planner, this would probably sound very weird.

You could say northern end or southern end in informal conversation, but this only works well if your friend has a good sense of direction. It's usually better to refer to an intersection (e.g., meet me at Franklin and Willow), or if the street dead ends, you could something like say the dead end of Franklin St.

Jonathan S.
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    Hmm, what about "the top" or "the bottom" of the street? I think I may have heard that used. – Dan Bron May 06 '16 at 17:42
  • If you're in a place with a distinct downtown (and possibly uptown), and the street ends at or near downtown, then words like top and bottom might very well work (especially so if uptown is located north of downtown). For example, you'd probably know which end of 5th Ave in New York the phrase the bottom of 5th Ave refers to. But I generally find that up and down are ambiguous when used to describe directions on the surface of the earth, so I try to avoid them. – Jonathan S. May 06 '16 at 17:50
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    Yes, I think these kinds of descriptions, where they exist, are locally determined and locally understood. It would be no good, at least in Britain, when speaking to an incomer, to refer to one end of the street as the top or the bottom - or anything else. – WS2 May 06 '16 at 19:15
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When meeting up with people in an urban area, it's common for English speaking folks to provide the intersection where they'd like to meet; this removes all ambiguity about whats the "top" or the "bottom" of the street, or which direction is North or South.

"Meet me at 5:30, I'll be at the corner of Congress St and State St"

lux
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English does not distinguish between the two ends of a street. The word 'end' would be used for both of what you call the 'head' and 'tail' of the street.

DJClayworth
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