Etymologically
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road

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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
  • 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