Etymologically
Log in

corridor

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 17 October 2026 at 15:53. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈkoɹəˌdoɹ/, /ˈkoɹədɚ/; /ˈkɒɹɪdɔː/, /-də/ (UK)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French corridor,[2][3] from Italian corridore,[2][3][4] an alteration, under the influence of corridore (“runner”), of corridoio,[2][4][5] from Vulgar Latin *curritōrium (“running place”),[2][4] from Latin currō (“to run”) (see current),[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In fortification, a covered way or continuous path around the defences: 1591 in Barnhart and the OED, the 1590s in Etymonline,[2][6][3] a military sense now obsolete.[3]

Semantic evolution

A passage or covered walk between two places is from 1620,[2][6] and an outside gallery round a court from the 1640s.[3][6] The modern sense, a long hallway with rooms opening off it, is by 1814, in Byron's The Corsair.[2][3] A passage along a railway carriage is from 1892,[6] and a strip of a state's territory running through another, giving access to the sea, from 1919.[3][6] Corridors of power refers to the senior levels of government.[7]

Timeline

  • 1591 – a covered way in a fortification.[2][6]
  • 1620 – a passage.[2]
  • 1814 – a hallway.[2][3]
  • 1892 – a corridor train.[6]
  • 1919 – a territorial corridor.[3][6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A long passage in a building, with rooms opening off it; a hallway.
  2. A strip of land giving access through foreign territory, as from a landlocked country to the sea.
  3. A strip of land or airspace along a route: an air corridor.

Word family

  • corridored
  • utilidor
  • Northeast Corridor
  • air corridor

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press