Pedestridance?
May 4, 2010 8:57 AM   Subscribe

What is the word for the thing that happens when two people are walking toward each other from opposite sides of the lane and one goes left to let the other pass, but the second goes left too and then they both go right together and left again?
posted by Lucubrator to Writing & Language (12 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
I've often heard it called a pas de deux, for obvious reasons.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 8:59 AM on May 4, 2010


"Dancing"
posted by nitsuj at 9:08 AM on May 4, 2010 [1 favorite]


Best answer: It's a droitwich.
posted by tomcooke at 9:20 AM on May 4, 2010 [3 favorites]


Not finding the exact french, but I'm still searching. I remember something from Appel's annotated Lolita that describes a French idiom for this exact situation. I think it translates to something like "crusader's cross". I'll keep looking.
posted by jjjjjjjijjjjjjj at 9:27 AM on May 4, 2010


I think this was a George Carlin bit from the middle of the last century (well, 70s anyway), but I can't find it because I don't know the word.

Droitwich sounds alright. I'd call it a bispazalambulation conflict, but no one else ever has.
posted by Some1 at 9:28 AM on May 4, 2010


This was one of Rich Hall's sniglets. He called it "shuggleftulation."
posted by adamrice at 9:30 AM on May 4, 2010


The french is "chassé-croisé", which can also be translated as "crossover".
posted by jjjjjjjijjjjjjj at 9:34 AM on May 4, 2010 [1 favorite]


I've referred to it as either a "Three Stooges routine" or a "Marx Brothers moment" and people understand what I mean, in context. I don't know if the Three Stooges or the Marx Brothers actually did this, but I wouldn't put it past either of them.
posted by dlugoczaj at 9:49 AM on May 4, 2010


Parallel synchronised randomness!

It's what I think of every time it happens to me, anyway.
posted by curiousorange at 11:46 AM on May 4, 2010 [1 favorite]


It's a do-si-do.
posted by MuffinMan at 1:18 PM on May 4, 2010


See also corriedoo, corriemollie and corrievorrie for further corridor etiquette awkwardness.

And not to mention corriearklet, corriecravie and corriemuchloch.

(All terms originated in Douglas Adams and John Lloyds The Meaning of Liff)
posted by Miss Otis' Egrets at 2:17 PM on May 4, 2010 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thanks!
posted by Lucubrator at 2:10 PM on June 3, 2010


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