English base precinct

Dictionary entry: precinct
    • Je n'ai jamais vu la collocation pedestrian precinct, pour ma part, j'aurais dit plutôt zone en anglais comme en français, mais je viens de la trouver dans quelques ressources en anglais américain... ?
     
    Kelly B said:
    Je n'ai jamais vu la collocation pedestrian precinct, pour ma part, j'aurais dit plutôt zone en anglais comme en français...
    Click to expand...

    Hello 🙂

    There seems to be a clear difference here between AmE and BE. In BE, usage of the expression ‘pedestrian precinct’ reached its peak in the 1960s and since then there seems to have been a steady decline. By about 2019 (the most recent year currently available on Google Books Ngram Viewer), ‘pedestrian precinct’ and ‘pedestrian zone’ were roughly equal in terms of frequency of use.

    In AmE, by contrast, ‘pedestrian zone’ overtook ‘pedestrian precinct’ in the early 1970s and remains by far the favoured expression.

    It may be worth pointing out that both ‘pedestrian precinct’ and its translation ‘zone piétonne’ can be found by clicking on the Collins tab in the WordReference dictionary. Collins marks ‘pedestrian precinct’ as British, and ‘pedestrian zone’ as American.

    I do hope that this is helpful.
     
    Thank you for these interesting perspectives.

    I'm forwarding this thread to the English side to see whether they want to add "pedestrian precinct", which is in the Collins:
    Collins English French Electronic Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers 2005:
    pedestrian precinct (British,pedestrian zone, US) n zone (f) piétonne
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    Hello all,

    Thank you for your messages. Well, pedestrian precinct does exist. Personally, I tend to associate it specifically with pedestrianised shopping areas, but it seems it can be used more widely than that. It wouldn't be my first choice. Like Kelly, I'd say pedestrian zone (definitely not AE only as far as I'm concerned).

    Anyway, I had a look around the English base. We don't have an entry for pedestrian zone either, but we do have one for pedestrian area. I've added 'pedestrian zone' and a UK tagged* 'pedestrian precinct' as alternative terms for that. You'll see them in the dictionaries after the next update.

    * @Kelly B, you said you found pedestrian precinct being used in AE? BE dictionaries say it's a BE term. I'm not sure if it's best to leave it as UK or not.
     
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