footpath

Etymology

It is formed from English foot + path.^[2][3][4] The OED compares similar compounds in other Germanic languages: Old Frisian fōtpath, Middle Dutch voetpat, Dutch voetpad, Middle Low German vōtpat, Middle High German vuozphat and German Fußpfad; it also compares Medieval Latin via pedalis, recorded in a British source in 1392.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A path used mainly or only by people on foot: before 1450, in a copy of Dives and Pauper, a text the OED dates to about 1410.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1526 as its first known use,^[5] and Dictionary.com gives 1520–30.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its first sense, and in the countryside it can also mean a public right of way.^[2] From 1535, in Coverdale's Bible, it also appears in figurative use.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as a narrow way too small for horses or carriages, and quoted King Lear: “Both stile and gate, horseway and footpath.”^[4] From 1776 it could mean a paved walkway beside a street,^[2] and in Britain, Australia and New Zealand it is now also another word for pavement.^[6][5] A verb, to provide something with footpaths or turn it into one, appears in 1844, in E. B. Barrett's Drama of Exile.^[2] A single record of 1580 seems to use the noun for a stone serving as a base or pedestal.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1450 – a path for pedestrians.^[2]
• 1535 – in figurative use, in Coverdale's Bible.^[2]
• 1580 – apparently a stone base or pedestal (obsolete, rare).^[2]
• 1776 – a paved path alongside a street.^[2]
• 1844 – verb, to provide with a footpath or turn into one.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A narrow path for people on foot, especially a public right of way across the country: The footpath follows the river to the old mill.^[6][5][2]
2. (chiefly British, Australian and New Zealand) A paved path beside a road; a pavement or sidewalk.^[6][5][2]

Verb

1. To provide with a footpath, or turn into one.^[2]

Related words

• foot
• path

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 p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins