Anyroad and Anyway
As far as I know, anyway is a common word used by both American and British English speakers to mean in any case, nevertheless, etc. I never thought much about the word until I noticed that British English speakers sometimes use anyroad the same way.
If I had thought about it, I'd probably have said the way in anyway meant something like manner, or whichever way, or manner, in which the situation is considered.
But learning of anyroad as a synonym for anyway, I thought about the fact that way is another word for street or road. Thus, we can also way that anyway means "any (metaphorical) road you want to go down in considering the situation."
My initial impression was that anyroad was a word invented as an amusing alternate for anyway, unexpectedly playing on the synonymous relationship between way and road, but perhaps there was no humo(u)r intended.
Dictionary.com identifies anyroad as Northern England dialect and British slang, originating 1885 or 1890. What other specifics relate to the origins of anyroad?
Solution 1:
The OED says, s.v. road, in its sense no. 9:
Eng. regional (chiefly north. in later use). Way, manner. Freq. as no road: (in) no way or manner; some road: (in) some way or manner. See also ANY ROAD adv..
However, the link (ANY ROAD adv) fails, and there does not seem to be an entry for either anyroad or any road, though the former does occur incidentally in a citation from 1932 (for mill-house).
It certainly agrees with my perception that it is a Northern use. I hear anyroad, or sometimes anyroad up, here in Yorkshire, but did not hear it when I was growing up in the South.
Solution 2:
Just to supplement @ColinFine's answer:
Oxford Dictionaries Online (ODO) has:
any road (up)
chiefly Northern English informal term for ANYWAY.
any road, I’m sure you’ll make a go of it
OneLook Dictionary Search lists 6 links, but none seems to add anything new. Some of them state that it is a northern English term, and some (I think mainly the American-orientated ones) merely state British.
The Online Etymology Dictionary lists origins for any and for about 12 any- words, but anyroad is not included.