Skywalks

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An elevated pedestrian walkway designed to connect buildings or areas while providing a safe passage above ground level
2. A bridge-like structure allowing people to walk above the ground, often linking to shopping centers or office complexes
3. Architecturally engineered paths situated high above the ground and intended for foot traffic to facilitate movement between locations

Etymology: "Skywalks" is the plural of "skywalk", a compound of "sky" and "walk". The sense is literal: a walk through the sky, here meaning an elevated path that carries pedestrians above street level between buildings. "Sky" comes from Old Norse "ský", meaning cloud, which only gradually came to mean the heavens above, while "walk" is an older English word for moving on foot. The plural simply adds "s" to the noun, so "skywalks" names several such structures, as in a city district linked by a network of them. The compound is transparent: nothing in its parts has shifted meaning, and the word describes exactly what it looks like, a walkway in the sky.

Synonyms: elevated walkways