Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Originally posted by: destrekor
I'm from ohio and never heard of the word berm.
But then again, we really don't have any berms where I'm from. Northwest Ohio is complete flatlands. Only thing we have are shoulders on the road.
And I grew up in the city limits.
Maybe if I grew up in Southern Ohio where it isn't flat lands, which seems to indicate the reason why its local to Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia - all quite the opposite of flat in certain regions, big coal production areas too. Though other parts of those states are like Ohio. the Northern half of Ohio is boring.
I grew up in NW Ohio just outside of Toledo. Everyone I knew called the road's shoulder the "berm".
Merriam-Webster lists a "berm" as:
1: a narrow shelf, path, or ledge typically at the top or bottom of a slope ; also : a mound or wall of earth or sand <a landscaped berm>
2: the shoulder of a road
Seems that it's use to describe a narrow strip of land or earth actually predates its use to describe a mound of earth, especially given it's etymology.
French berme, from Dutch berm, strip of ground along a dike; akin to Middle English brimme, brim
ZV
I've never heard anyone refer to a shoulder as anything other than a shoulder, and I live in the city.
Never heard any of the fellow college kids at OSU say the word berm either. Maybe earlier it was a more common term but I have definitely never heard a single soul mutter such a word. And with the number of people I've come across, including the varied cultures at OSU, and the military folks I've dealt with, and the books I've read.... the word berm is officially a brand new word to me, not once introduced earlier. I am definitely thinking it might be falling out of use with my generation, at least regionally.
The term "shoulder" for the shoulder of the road is all I've ever heard. But, other than that, we don't really have much in the way of dikes or similar topology upon which paths must be lain.
Or, it could be the difference between city and non-city. Living completely in the city, versus living outside the city where it gets a more rural, where topology actually starts to look slightly different than simply flat, and more flat.
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