road

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /rəʊd/, US /roʊd/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rode (“a riding, journey”) (also rade), inherited from Old English rād (“riding, journey; hostile incursion”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *raidō,^[2][3] derived from the root of *rīdaną (“to ride”), the source of ride.^[2][3][5] Barnhart and Etymonline trace it to Proto-Indo-European *reidh- (“to ride”).^[2][3][6] Its cognates include Old Frisian rēd (“ride”), Middle Dutch rede, Old High German reita (“foray”) and Old Norse reið (“riding, vehicle”).^[2][3][4] It is a doublet of raid, the Scots form of the same word.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of riding on horseback, a journey on horseback: Old English rād, about 888;^[7] Barnhart's first example is from 871, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.^[2] A mounted raid or hostile incursion is from about 900.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word still meant a riding or a raid, senses now obsolete.^[3][4] A sheltered stretch of water where ships ride at anchor, a roadstead, is from about 1320.^[7][8] The sense “way between places for travellers” is recorded from 1596,^[7][3] at the end of the 16th century,^[9] and Word Origins notes some evidence that it was used earlier.^[9] Hoad suggests that it was generalized from Old English compounds such as hwēolrād (“wheel-track”).^[8] The middle of the road has meant moderate views since the 1890s, first in US politics.^[9] An underground passage in a mine is a road from 1839.^[7] On the road, “travelling”, and a road as a railway are American uses.^[10]

Timeline

• 871 – Old English rād, a riding (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle).^[2]
• c. 900 – a raid.^[7]
• c. 1200 – Middle English rade, a journey.^[2]
• c. 1320 – a roadstead.^[7]
• 1596 – a way for travel.^[7]
• 1839 – a passage in a mine.^[7]
• 1890s – middle of the road.^[9]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An open, usually public way for vehicles, people and animals.
2. The surface of such a way.
3. A course or path: the road to success.
4. (US) A railroad.
5. (often roads) A roadstead.

Word family

• roadless
• roadlessness

Related words

• ride
• raid
• inroad
• roadstead
• railroad

Usage notes

A separate verb road, of unknown origin, is used of a dog following game by the scent of its trail, from 1856.^[4][7]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin