motorway

Etymology

It is formed from English motor + way.^[2][3][4][5] motor is from Latin mōtor (“mover”), an agent noun from moveō (“to move”),^[3][2][6] and way is from Old English weg (“track, path”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A road or route for motor cars: 1897, in A. K. Owen's Guernsey Market House Plan.^[2][7] Etymonline gives 1903 and notes that the earliest uses described roads that did not yet exist.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The general sense of a road for motor vehicles, the first recorded, is now rare.^[2] From 1906 the word was used for a dual carriageway with several lanes each way, built for fast long-distance traffic,^[2] and according to Etymonline such roads became a reality only in the 1930s.^[3] It remains chiefly British: American English says superhighway, and Canadian English also expressway.^[8][7][9] In skiing slang a motorway is a broad, easy piste, recorded from 1979.^[2][10]

Timeline

• 1897 – a road or route for motor cars.^[2][7]
• 1903 – first date in Etymonline and the Merriam-Webster Collegiate.^[3][9]
• 1906 – a dual carriageway for fast long-distance traffic.^[2]
• 1979 – skiing, an easy piste.^[2]
• 1982 – in the Official Sloane Ranger Handbook, a broad, easy piste.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly British) A main road for fast traffic, with limited access, separate carriageways for each direction and usually two or more lanes in each: The lorry broke down on the motorway near Leeds.^[8][2][4][7]
2. (skiing, slang) A broad, easy piste.^[2][10]

Related words

• freeway
• highway
• superhighway

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 f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge