fairway

Etymology

It is probably from English fare + way, with the first element later reshaped after the adjective fair.^[2] Etymonline and Dictionary.com take the adjective as the first element from the start.^[3][4] Old English had a parallel formation, færweg (“road, thoroughfare”), with fær as its first element, and the OED compares Middle Dutch vārweg (“road”), Middle Low German vārwech (“road, highway, navigable waterway”), German Fahrweg (“navigable waterway; road”), Old Norse farvegr (“track, navigable waterway”) and Danish farvej (“road, highway”).^[2] The word seems to appear earlier in the place name Fareweia in Devon (1086), now Farway.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

One's course or route, with a possessive (his fairway): about 1440, in the alliterative Morte Arthure; this sense is now obsolete.^[2][5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the navigable-channel sense to the 15th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The nautical sense, a navigable channel between rocks or sandbanks, or the course ships regularly follow into a harbour, is recorded from about 1474 in the OED,^[2][5] from the 1580s in Etymonline^[3] and 1515–25 in Dictionary.com.^[4] The golfing sense, the stretch of short grass between the tee and the green, appears by 1898;^[2][3] the OED compares the earlier fair green.^[2] Dictionary.com dates the golf sense 1905–10.^[4] From 1903 the word was also used of a passageway, gangway or thoroughfare,^[2] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged records a stretch of open water used by seaplanes and any clear path, as in the fairway of migrating birds.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – one's course or route (obsolete).^[2]
• c. 1474 – a navigable channel in a river or among rocks and sandbanks; the usual course of ships.^[2][5] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1580s.^[3]
• 1898 – in golf, the mown stretch between tee and green.^[2][3]
• 1903 – a passageway, gangway or thoroughfare.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. In golf, the part of a hole between the tee and the putting green where the grass is cut short, apart from the rough and the hazards: Her second shot rolled back onto the fairway.^[7][8][9][2]
2. A navigable channel in a river or harbour or along a coast, or the usual course that ships take through it.^[7][8][6][2]
3. A stretch of open water near an airport, used by seaplanes for landing and taking off.^[6]
4. Any clear, unobstructed way or space; a passageway or thoroughfare.^[7][4][2]

Related words

• fare
• way
• fair

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers