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I remember one day, when I was supposed to be at school, hanging out at a friends house and watching an episode of Call My Bluff and there was a word that meant something like:
A path that is made (e.g. across a field) by people consistently walking along the same way
For example something like this (updated as some pointed out that my original picture was actually a footpath):
So, it is 15+ years later and I cannot for the life of me remember it so does anyone know what that word is?
You probably heard one of:
For it to remain this tantalisingly elusive, I dare say that you heard option numero uno.
Besides path, pathlet, pathway, and the many things related to ways, tracks, and trails by having those words in their names (such as runway, highway, race track), we still have many possibilities:
(All cited definitions from the OED.)
And then there is the adjective:
Some of those are now rare or obsolete, or restricted to certain dialects or locales.
In the trail maintenance community, it's called a "social trail" but that's only relevant when there's a maintained trail from which it branches.
They are called desire paths (also desire lines, social trails, goat tracks, bootleg trails, or intention lines).
The philosopher Gaston Bachelard called them les chemins du désir (pathways of desire), so that's one possible origin of the term.
Some paths as shown are called cowpaths. For some discussion of cowpath and calf-path see Laure's answer to a previous question. I've heard deer trail in conversation much more frequently than cowpath, but deer trails usually are less obvious than the trail shown in the photo.
Following Andrew Leach's comment, I did some strategic searching in the OED and came up with trackway:
A path beaten by the feet of passers, a track; also, an ancient British roadway, a ridgeway.
I don't know if that's obscure enough to be the word sought here, but it has the right definition.
social path - I came across the term when editing trail guides for National Parks and National Forests. Social paths appear near switchbacks - some people are impatient with a gradual gain. It's also used by some landscape designers.
The question of UK rights of way is a legally complex matter, but I’d have thought the path shown in the picture was simply a public footpath. Other routes are variously known as public bridleways, restricted byways, byways open to all traffic, permissive paths, and a few others. Full descriptions can be seen on the Ramblers Association website.
From Home Ground:
A close look at any city park or green will typically reveal footpaths that break away from paved walks, trails that countless pedestrians have worn into the grass. Such a trail is a desire path: the route people have chosen to take across an open place, marking a human pattern on a landscape. "A 'desire path' is what hikers or walkers have worn thin through finding a better way, or a shortcut, to a desired place," writes Mary Morris in Acts of God. Today, many planning agencies make use of such patterns when designing a public space. They first clear the land and then, after a few weeks or months, examine the ground for evidence of a human trail before choosing where to lay the path. – Lan Samantha Chang
There is a single word for "trodden pathway" in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English - "drung"
drung n. also drang, drong, drang.' A narrow lane or passage between houses, fenced gardens, etc. 1972 MURRAY 29 There are 'drungs' (lanes) and roads shooting off in all directions from the main artery. 1983 Daily News 14 June, p. 14 The once quiet drung [Maunder's Lane], located off Torbay Road at the top of Coaker's Hill [is to undergo major upgrading]. 1988 GOSSE 4 This wharf was located in a small cove at the end of a fairly wide drung, known as Dock Lane.
I don't think this is the word you want though! I think that it's an architectural or legal term (somewhat like "curtilage") that you're looking for, but unfortunately I can't remember it either. I too remember hearing it years ago in the UK (perhaps on Call My Bluff) and also it was used by an architect friend.
One not yet mentioned is the "trampled path". In studying Biology, we had to assess footfall by looking at square-metre quadrants of grassed areas. Areas with highly-trampled regions were deemed "well-walked" or, as mentioned before, cowpaths, deerpaths or, quite simply, the beaten path.
There's another term I've heard these referred to (about 20 years ago in London) but I can't remember it.
Researching it I came across lust lines, which is just a derivative of desire lines, but has nicer alliteration. This isn't quite what I remember, but is definitely closer.
I found this first in the hidden comments of a spectator article:
I've heard them referred to as lust lines in certain parks of London.
Pathway: trodden path seems too obvious.
I've been thinking of exactly the same thing recently. The word that keeps coming into my mind is a 'weird' or a 'weirdway'
I believe in the UK councils used this to describe these people made paths. I can't find any evidence of this term being correct though (try googling that term!)- its just what my brain thinks it was. Maybe it will spark something in your own recollection though?
When I took horticulture, my professor called this a desire line.
A path created by natural means, simply because it is the “shortest or most easily navigated” way.
