Word of the Day

: February 27, 2017

shunpike

noun SHUN-pyke

What It Means

: a side road used to avoid the toll on or the speed and traffic of a superhighway

shunpike in Context

David did some math to determine if the money on the extra gas needed to take the shunpike cost more than the toll for using the freeway.

"The News On 6 wanted to see if other drivers would consider a shunpike to save money.'It just depends on what kind of drive it is and how much more time it would take,' said Lisa Underhill, a Claremore resident." — Dan Bewley, Newson6.com (Oklahoma), 24 Aug. 2009

Did You Know?

America's love affair with the automobile and the development of a national system of superhighways (along with the occasional desire to seek out paths less traveled) is a story belonging to the 20th century. So the word shunpike, too, must be a 20th-century phenomenon, right? Nope. Toll roads have existed for centuries (the word turnpike has meant "tollgate" since at least 1678), and were quite common in 19th-century America. Shunpike has been describing side roads since the middle of that century, almost half a century before the first Model T rolled out of the factory.