Etymologically
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pavement

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈpeɪvm(ə)nt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pavement, also paviment and pament,[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman pavement, also paviment,[3][4][2] and partly directly borrowed from Latin pavīmentum (“paved surface or floor”),[3][4][2] from paviō (“to beat, ram, tread down”) and the suffix -mentum.[3][5][4][6] Etymonline traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *pau- (“to cut, strike, stamp”).[4] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1121–25, for a paving stone or a paved floor,[7][3] and the Latin word gave also Catalan paviment and Italian pavimento.[3] The verb pave comes from the same Latin verb.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A paved surface or floor: the OED's first example is from before 1300, in Floris and Blauncheflur (composed about 1250);[3] Etymonline dates the word to the mid 13th century.[4]

Semantic evolution

From about 1330 the word was used of the paved part of a street, the roadway,[3][4] a sense now chiefly North American and technical.[3] The modern British sense, a raised footway beside a street, appears in 1743,[3] a gradual shift that Etymonline notes;[4] in American English the same thing is the sidewalk.[8][5] In the Wycliffite Bible (about 1384) the Vulgate's pavimentum gave the figurative use for anything like a pavement.[3] Later extensions include the floor of a mine (1672), a level expanse of bare rock, especially fissured limestone, in geology (1827), and a flat surface of close-set teeth in anatomy and zoology (1842).[3] In East Anglian dialect a pavement or pamment was a single paving brick or tile.[3][9][10] The verb, to pave, is recorded from 1559.[3]

Timeline

  • before 1300 – a paved surface or floor.[3]
  • c. 1330 – the paved roadway of a street.[3][4]
  • c. 1384 – figurative, something likened to a pavement.[3]
  • before 1425 – paving material, paving stones.[3]
  • 1559 – verb, to pave.[3]
  • 1589 – in East Anglia, a paving brick or tile.[3]
  • 1743 – a raised footway beside a street.[3]
  • 1827 – in geology, a level surface of bare rock.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly British) A paved path for people on foot beside a road; a sidewalk: Cyclists are not allowed on the pavement.[8][5][3]
  2. A paved surface, especially the hard surface of a road or other thoroughfare.[8][5][3]
  3. The material used for paving.[8][5][3]
  4. (civil engineering) The layered structure forming the surface of a road, runway or similar area.[8][3]
  5. (geology) A level expanse of bare rock, such as a limestone pavement.[3]

Word family

  • pavement artist
  • pave
  • paving

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  8. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press