A narrow passage or street between buildings, often running behind or between houses.
From Old French 'alée' (a going, a passage), the word gained 'way' as a suffix to emphasize it was a path; it originally meant any passage or way through something.
Medieval cities were built with alleyways as escape routes during plague—if disease struck one street, residents could flee through secret passages, which is why old European cities have such confusing, tangled alley systems.
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