Etymologically
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route

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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

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