Uptown and downtown
Uptown:
the upper part of a town or city; especially : the residential district
downtown:
the lower part of a city; especially : the main business district
but ,if the main business district of a particular city is in the upper part of the city ,then , will it lead to confusion when people use the words ‘downtown’ and ‘Uptown’?
No, because they aren't taken literally (in terms of elevation) anymore.
thank you,Uriel .
you mean ,when someone says that he is going to downtown ,he is going to the main business district ,even if the main business district is actually in the upper part of the city .am i right?
Downtown is almost universally understood to mean the main business disctrict. El centro. No matter where it sits geographically.
Uptown more often means what is says -- the northern part of the town.
I believe both of these terms originated in New York City, which is oriented north/south, and where historically people lived uptown and worked downtown.
No matter where it sits geographically ... unless it's not in North America where we don't even use the words.
It's interesting though. I think a lot depends on the city. Vancouver, for example, has a Downtown but no uptown.
what about downstate, upstate?
upstate NY?
Yeah, "upstate" and "downstate" are mostly just New York things. Upstate is the more commonly used one, meaning pretty much "the part of New York State that isn't New York City or Long Island."
Downstate means -- you guessed it -- New York City and Long Island.
But if you live in NY the distinction does get more complicated:
http://neovox.cortland.edu/oldsite/dorm/dorm_14/dorm_14.html
Downtown=the part of town where address and street numbers are low. Most cities begin numbering at the city center.
Uptown=the part of town where address and street numbers are high. The further you go from the city center, the higher the numbers.
It has nothing to do with natural geography, be it altitude or latitude. Minneapolis' well known Uptown entertainment district is in the southern part of the city.
All the cities I've lived in have had a downtown and no uptown. I'm in California by the way.
yeah, same here. I've heard of "downtown", but not uptown.
Ever heard of the song "Uptown girl" by Bill Joel?
what's funny is that I used to think that uptown was just some unusual variation of "downtown".
Johnathan Mark
^^^What he said.