high street
[See street.]
In OE., and often down to 17th c., A highway, a main road, whether in country or town; now, very generally, the proper name (ˈHigh Street) of that street of a town which is built upon a great highway, and is (or was originally) the principal one in the town.
In OE. times often applied to one of the Roman Roads or ‘Streets’; it remains as the name of one of these, and of the mountain over which it passes in Westmorland (now Cumbria).
| ? c 1000 Charter of Oswald, Kemble Cod. Dipl. III. 246 To ðære heahstræte. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 89 Þat burh folc hihten þe heȝe strete. a 1300 Cursor M. 8071 (Gött.) Þai went ham forth þe hie strete [Cott. þe mikel stret]. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xii. 105 Riȝt as syȝte serueth a man to se þe heighe strete. 1535 Coverdale Job xxiii. 11 My fete kepe his path, his hye strete haue I holden. 1548 Hall Chron. K. Edw. IV, 210 Broughte..through the hygh streates of London, too the cathedrall church of sainct Paule. 1563 W. Fulke Meteors (1640) 38 b, The milke way..is the high street in Heaven that goeth streight to Jupiters palace. 1606 N. Riding Rec. (1883) I. 36 Yarme Bridge being a common and most necessarie passage..and being His Ma{supt}{supi}⊇{sups} high streete. 1671 Milton Samson 1599 The morning trumpets festival proclaimed Through each high street. 1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 69/2 High Streets..are designed for some certain purpose, especially any public one; as, for instance, those which lead to some Temple, or to the Course for Races, or to the Place of Justice. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 208 The Catholics were allowed..to carry the host in procession anywhere except in the high streets of royal burghs. 1896 Oxford Sights & Scenes 185 High Street being called ‘the High’. The usage is similar with other well-known streets in Oxford. |