gateway

Etymology

It is formed from English gate + way.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A passage that is or may be closed by a gate, an opening in a fence or wall: 1707, in Mortimer's book on husbandry.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) explained gateways as ways through the gates of enclosed fields, quoting Mortimer on how muddy they got.^[6] By 1782 the word also meant the frame or arch in which a gate hangs, or a building over a gate.^[2] The figurative sense, a way in or out, is recorded from Tennyson's Locksley Hall (1842).^[2][3] In the United States it came to mean a city or point through which traffic enters a region.^[5] In computing, from 1974, a gateway is a device that connects separate networks or systems,^[2] and a verb to gateway followed in 1983.^[2]

Timeline

• 1707 – a passage closed by a gate.^[2][3]
• 1782 – a frame or arch in which a gate hangs.^[2]
• 1842 – figurative: a means of entry or exit.^[2][3]
• 1974 – computing: a device linking networks.^[2]
• 1983 – verb: to connect by a gateway.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An opening in a wall or fence that can be closed by a gate; also the structure framing it.
2. A means of access or entry: the town is the gateway to the national park.
3. (computing) A device or program that connects two networks using different protocols.

Word family

• gateway drug

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.