Jaywalking

:For The Tonight Show skit, see Jaywalking (The Tonight Show).

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Jaywalking is a term used to describe when a pedestrian crosses the street without regard to traffic regulations. In common use, the term generally refers to someone crossing a busy street outside of a designated crosswalk.

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The word jaywalker traces back to 1917, though it may have been in use as early as 1900. It is generally considered to have originated in the United States, possibly from the city of Boston. It is a portmanteau of the words jay and walk; in this context, jay is used in the obsolete slang sense, referring to a stupid or dull person, or possibly a rube, i.e. someone from a rural area and not familiar with "city ways". At the time, vehicles and traffic signals were a new concept, gaining popularity in the larger cities, so this term would have been most commonly used to describe newcomers who were unfamiliar with these recent developments.

The Tonight Show: The Tonight Show is NBC's long-running late-night talk and variety show, currently hosted by Jay Leno in Burbank, CA (near Los Angeles). The hour-long show premiered September 27, 1954 in a 90-minute format hosted by Steve Allen. The show features at least two guests each night, usually including ...

Jaywalking (The Tonight Show): Jay Walking is a pre-recorded segment from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (The name is a play on the host's name and the illegal practice of jaywalking). The host of the show, Jay Leno, goes out in the Los Angeles area and asks people questions about current news and other topics. The vast and overw...

Pedestrian: A pedestrian is a person travelling on foot, whether walking or running. In modern times, the term mostly refers to someone walking on a road but this was not the case historically....