route

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ruːt/, US also /raʊt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rute, route,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French rute (“road, way, path”),^[2][3] from Latin rupta (“broken”) (via) “(a road) opened by force”, cut through a forest,^[2][3][5] the feminine past participle of rumpere (“to break”).^[2][3] The word fell out of use in the 15th century and was readopted in the 16th.^[6] It is related to rout, rupture and routine.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

“A way, a road, space for passage”: about 1200 in Etymonline,^[2] before 1200 in the Ancrene Riwle according to Barnhart,^[3] and before 1225 in the OED.^[7]

Semantic evolution

A course or progression is from before 1333.^[3] The customary path of animals is from the early 15th century,^[2][3] which led to a fixed course for carrying things, first postal, as in mail route (1792),^[2][3][7] later extended to deliveries of milk or newspapers (1841).^[2][3][7] In the army, the order to march is from 1751.^[7] According to the OED, the pronunciation rhyming with “stout” appeared in the early 19th century.^[2] The verb, of a railway ticket, is from 1890,^[2][7] and of an electrical signal or telephone call by 1948.^[2][7]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – a way, a road.^[2][3]
• early 15th century – a path of animals.^[2]
• 1751 – marching orders.^[7]
• 1792 – a mail route.^[2][3]
• 1841 – a delivery round.^[3][7]
• 1890 – verb.^[2][7]
• 1948 – to direct a signal.^[2][7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A road, course or way for travel from one place to another.
2. A customary line of travel.
3. A fixed course or territory assigned to a delivery person or salesperson.
4. A means of reaching a goal.

Verb

1. To send by a particular route.
2. To schedule the order of a sequence of procedures.

Word family

• preroute
• routeman
• routeway
• misroute
• rutter
• reroute
• router
• routine

Related words

• rout
• rupture
• abrupt
• erupt
• bankrupt

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 j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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