alley: [14] Alley is related to French aller ‘go’. Old French aler (which came from Latin ambulāre ‘walk’, source of English amble and ambulance) produced the derived noun alee ‘act of walking’, hence ‘place where one walks, passage’. => amble, ambulance
alley (n.)
mid-14c., "passage in a house; open passage between buildings; walkway in a garden," from Old French alee (13c., Modern French allée) "a path, passage, way, corridor," also "a going," from fem. of ale, past participle of aler "to go," which ultimately may be a contraction of Latin ambulare "to walk," or from Gallo-Roman allari, a back-formation from Latin allatus "having been brought to" [Barnhart]. Compare sense evolution of gate. Applied by c. 1500 to "long narrow enclosure for playing at bowls, skittles, etc." Used in place names from c. 1500.
The word is applied in American English to what in London is called a mews, and also is used there especially of a back-lane parallel to a main street (1729). To be up someone's alley "in someone's neighborhood" (literally or figuratively) is from 1931; alley-cat attested by 1890.
雙語例句
1. Everyone wanted to bowl, hence everyone wanted to open a bowling alley.
大家都想玩保齡球，因此大家都想開保齡球館。
來自柯林斯例句
2. The Internet has proved a blind alley for many firms.
事實證明，因特網對許多公司而言是一條行不通的路。
來自柯林斯例句
3. The side alley was walled off from the back garden.
側巷和后花園之間用墻隔開了。
來自柯林斯例句
4. In any event, the bowling alley restaurant proved quite acceptable.
無論如何，那個保齡球場的餐廳證明還是很不錯的。
來自柯林斯例句
5. The centre of the city is full of tiny intersecting alley-ways.