http://blog.oup.com/2009/05/tarmac/ Introducing brilliant authors to the blogosphere. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:43:07 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://blog.oup.com/2009/05/tarmac/comment-page-1/#comment-152724 J P Maher Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:00:45 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=4591#comment-152724 The great Scotch engineer's road metal named for him is not just a bunch of rocks, but a careful layering and grading of a base of crushed stone topped by layers of finer gravel, finished and sealed with asphalt. TV news readers in the US ignorantly use it to mean the pavement of an airport arrivals area, with nary a hint of asphalt or gravel. Runways, taxiways and aprons at airports are of course made of concrete, not "Tar-MacAdam". The great Scotch engineer’s road metal named for him is not just a bunch of rocks, but a careful layering and grading of a base of crushed stone topped by layers of finer gravel, finished and sealed with asphalt. TV news readers in the US ignorantly use it to mean the pavement of an airport arrivals area, with nary a hint of asphalt or gravel. Runways, taxiways and aprons at airports are of course made of concrete, not “Tar-MacAdam”.

]]> http://blog.oup.com/2009/05/tarmac/comment-page-1/#comment-151745 podictionary weekly » podictionary weekly # 208 - May 25 to 29 Fri, 29 May 2009 05:06:59 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=4591#comment-151745 [...] for dine Wednesday’s word origin was for fire Thursday’s etymology, posted at OUPblog was for tarmac and Friday’s word root was for the word [...] [...] for dine Wednesday’s word origin was for fire Thursday’s etymology, posted at OUPblog was for tarmac and Friday’s word root was for the word [...]

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