skid row

See also: skidrow and Skid Row

English

WOTD – 30 October 2021

Etymology

Part of a mural in Skid Row, a neighbourhood in Los Angeles, California, USA. Officially known as Central City East, as of 2019 it had one of the largest stable populations of homeless people in the United States.

An alteration of skid road (“road along which logs are dragged or skidded; (Canada, US, informal) downtown streets where loggers go for recreation on their time off”).[1] In 1852, skid road was first applied to a slum area at the loggers’ part of town in Seattle, Washington, USA, and before 1900 it had come into common usage in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Over time, the variant skid row came to refer to a district or slum frequented by alcoholics and hobos, even in areas without a lumber industry.[2]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌskɪd ˈɹəʊ/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˌskɪd ˈɹoʊ/
Audio (GA) (file)
Rhymes: -əʊ

Noun

skid row (countable and uncountable, plural skid rows) (chiefly Canada, US, informal)

(derogatory) An especially dilapidated section of a city, characterized by abandoned or run-down buildings and vices such as drug dealing and prostitution, and frequented by homeless people.
Synonyms: favela, skid road
(figuratively) A situation of great desperation or misfortune.

Alternative forms

skidrow, Skid Row

Related terms

hit the skids
on the skids

Translations

especially dilapidated section of a city

Estonian: kriminaalne linnajagu, slumm
Finnish: slummikortteli
French: ghetto (fr) m, bidonville (fr) m
German: Armenviertel (de) n, heruntergekommenes Viertel n
Spanish: barrios bajos m pl

situation of great desperation or misfortune

References

“skid row, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2019; “skid row, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Margery Fee; Janice McAlpine (2001) Guide to Canadian English Usage, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 456.