Etymologically
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path

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /pɑːθ/, US /pæθ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English path,[2] inherited from Old English pæþ (“narrow passage, track”),[3][4] also paþ,[4][3] from Proto-West Germanic *paþ,[3][5] which is also the source of Old Frisian path, Dutch pad and Old High German phad (German Pfad).[3][4][5] It is a word of uncertain origin, not found in Old Norse or Gothic,[3] and its initial p- is an etymological puzzle in a Germanic word.[3] Ringe and Watkins take it as borrowed, perhaps through Scythian, from Iranian *path-, compare Avestan pathō “of the way”,[3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to tread, go, pass”),[3][4] which would also make it related to Greek pátos “path”, Latin pōns “bridge” and find;[4][3] the OED finds this too much of a stretch.[3] The New Oxford calls its ultimate origin unknown.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A track trodden by people or animals: about 700 in the OED,[7] and about 725 in Barnhart, in a version of Exodus and in the compound ānpæth “narrow path” in Beowulf.[4]

Semantic evolution

The way along which a person or thing moves is from before 1000,[7] and the verb, “to tread a way”, is also Old English.[7] In Old Northumbrian it translated Latin vallis “valley”,[7] and in Scotland and northern England a path is commonly a steep road or ascent of a hill, from 1375.[7][3] A track for machinery is from 1883,[7] a metabolic pathway from 1909,[7] and a continuous mapping in mathematics from 1939.[7] pathway is from the 16th century.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 700 – a track.[7]
  • before 1000 – a course, a way.[7]
  • 1375 – a steep road, in the North.[7]
  • 16th century – pathway.[5]
  • 1883 – a track for machinery.[7]
  • 1939 – in mathematics.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A track worn by walking; a narrow footpath.
  2. A way made for a particular purpose: a bicycle path.
  3. The route or course along which something moves.
  4. A course of action or conduct.

Word family

  • by-path
  • multipath
  • pathbreaking
  • pathfinder
  • pathless
  • pathway
  • towpath
  • warpath

Usage notes

The combining form -path, as in psychopath, is a separate element, a back-formation from -pathy.[6]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  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 d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press