What Do You Call It

[Pinetree]

Bouncy castle.

^this

[bulbaquil]

I usually refer to it as either the sidewalk median or the sidewalk strip, on the rare occasions when I need to refer to it.

I associate the word berm with a steep, grassy slope much longer than it is tall (either by itself or as part of a structure), usually manmade and/or associated with a manmade structure, and sloping upward from either prevailing ground level or a particular focal area (e.g. the playing field at a sports arena).

That being the case, I might refer to it as a berm if it was sloped toward or away from the street. But most of these are generally flat.

[Maulrus]

Nobody else says "spacewalk"?

[linguoboy]

Nobody else says "spacewalk"?

I say "Moonwalk", which is the brand name of the one I went to every summer as a young child. I think I would have to explain that term to people who didn't share the same experience.

[JasonK]

In England: Bouncy Castle
In Australia: Jumping Castle

[hwhatting]

Swedish,
Hoppborg
Lit. Jump-castle.

In German it's similar - Hüpfburg "hopping castle"

[din]

In Dutch I call them Springkussen (jumping pillow), which appears to be the most common name. Others apparently also call them Springkasteel (jumping castle), which many other languages seem to do, too. Thing is, they rarely actually look like castles. Who thought of making them in the shape of Neuschwanstein-inspired fairy tale castles, anyway? The concept has something decidedly 'space-age (for the common man)'; I don't really get the Medieval connection.