Ed Ley

5.1) Those pruh street signs don't have the best luck with graffiti artists, do they?

Prague 4, day 206: Zelený pruh Zelený pruh was built in… read on. In 1941, a street, intended to be called Weilburgova, was built. It was named after Jan Weilburg z Widy, who, in the late 1400s, was the highest scribe in t…

5) And this isn't our first Prague 4 pruh: whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/10/22/p....

4) Specific lanes include a ‘předjížděcí pruh’ (overtaking lane), ‘odbočovací pruh’ (turning lane), ‘připojovací pruh) (merge lane), ‘krajní pruh’ (inside lane) and ‘odstavný pruh’ (breakdown lane, or, if you’re a Brit, the hard shoulder).

3) For fans of pruh-related vocabulary, a ‘silniční pruh’ or a ‘jízdní pruh’ is a traffic lane.

2) A ‘pruh’ is a strip, a stripe, a band or a lane. This street has its name due to its location near strips of fields.

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 311: Nad pruhy, built in 1935.

2) Very easy one today: ‘Nad hájem’ is, quite literally, above a grove.

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 310: Nad hájem, built in 1930.

Prague 2, day 134: Ječná Originally published on X on 24 March 2023. Ječná was built a long time ago. In 1348, Karel IV founded Prague’s New Town. There was a barley market (barley = ječmen) in this location, whereas, just…

4) If you’re after a Plastic People-related Prague street story, you may want to take a look at whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/31/p... (Hlavsa was also one of the members of Půlnoc).

YouTube video by Kočičadlo Půlnoc - Hochu zlatej / Půlnoc 1990

3) Outside of its literal meaning, the most likely place in which you’ve heard the word ‘půlnoc’ is in relation to the band of the same name, founded in 1988 by three members of the Plastic People of the Universe.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=In4z...

Prague 4, day 299: Večerní Večerní was built in 1973. Part three of the times-of-day series that started on and continued with ‘večer’ is ‘evening’. This reminds me of the first time I lived in Prague…

2) Continuing (and completing) the ‘times of day’ series last seen on whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/02/03/p..., ‘půlnoční’ is the adjective from ‘půlnoc’, literally ‘half night’ and therefore midnight.

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 309: Půlnoční, built in 1973.

I mean, ‘šíf’ took minus 0.1 seconds to work out; for this, I even consulted a list of boat vocabulary while writing.

They do like to pronounce it as ‘scheen’ in Austria, which makes it make even more sense as a borrowing.

Schooner - Wikipedia

Fluent German speaker here, and spent AGES trying to put two and two together. This would fit.

Also has me thinking of this, though Wikipedia doesn’t claim a link to schön: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schooner

Prague 4, day 286: Vltavanů Vltavanů was named in 1998. In 1871, an association was formed in Podskalí ( Its full name was ‘Vzájemně se podporující spolek plavců, rybářů a pobřežných Vltavan’, translating loosely …

5) Such a ‘šenák’ was recreated in 2018 by Jakub Schuster, then a student at the VOŠ, as commissioned by the Vltavan Association, who also came up as the very long road here is named after them: whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/01/21/p....

Prague 4, day 289: Šífařská Šífařská was built in 1998. In Czech, a ‘ship’ is a ‘loď’. For those wondering, yes, ‘łódź’ is also Polish for ‘ship’, but there’s no consensus…

4) But it seems that ‘šenák’ can also be used to denote a slightly larger boat, i.e. what we previously discussed under whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/01/24/p....

3) In other words, a ‘punt’, which you may know from being a tourist in London or Oxford or Cambridge. I can’t find a Prague-specific punt picture, so here’s a next best thing: a 1765 picture of boats in Gdańsk by Matthaus Deisch (punts are at the front).

2) The internet tells me that a ‘šenák’ is a small rowing boat which is manned by two or three ‘plavci’, literally ‘swimmers’, or, in the Vltava context, the people responsible for floating wood across the Vltava when this was a mainstay of the local economy.

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 308: Šenácká, built in 2023. Making it younger than this series.

And thank you for reading them!

3) I promise that tomorrow’s post is completely new and not a dubina, a zátiší or a lysina.

Prague 4, day 302: K dubinám K dubinám was built in 1935. A ‘dubina’ is a forest dominated by oak trees, or ‘duby’. You could also call it an ‘oak grove’. Due to its surrounding vegetation, …

2) I said there’d be a new story today. It turns out that I lied.

‘Dubina’ is an oak forest, and we’ve been here before: whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/02/06/p....

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 307: Na dubině, built in 1925.

CAN VERY QUALIFIED PEOPLE ON UK PODCASTS PLEASE STOP REFERRING TO ‘VAKLAV HAVEL’

Thank you.

3) Although this does have the distinction of being the first of the 956 streets that I’ve written about that was built in 2007. And, in fact, the first to be built between 1999 and 2008. So there’s that.

Prague 4, day 301: K Zátiší K Zátiší was built in 1983. Around the mid-1870s, the settlement around here was called Klánov, on which see Klán was not alone – this had become a popular area for Prague people to go o…

2) Yes, another one after K and V (see whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/02/05/p...). There’ll be a new story tomorrow (maybe).

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 306: U Zátiší, built in 2007.

Went past on the tram on Sunday (on the way to Hodkovičky, obviously), and felt very drawn to taking a picture without quite knowing why. This might explain it, thanks!

Ah, the joy of the rare occasions when you detect a Ye Olde Street Sign!

I have to jump in here! Not only because of the 'what a gorgeous, gorgeous place, please see pics attached' nature of Pécs, but also because opinions differ about whether 'in Pécs' is 'Pécsen' or Pécsett': www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wCa...