street

Pronunciation

• IPA: /striːt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English strete, inherited from Old English strǣt (“paved road, highway, street”) (Mercian strēt),^[2][3][4] borrowed from Late Latin strāta (“paved road”), an early borrowing shared by other West Germanic languages,^[2][3][5] short for via strāta (“paved way”), from the feminine past participle of sternere (“to lay down, spread out, pave”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *sterə- (“to spread”).^[2][4] Its relatives include German Straße and Dutch straat, and Italian strada and Spanish estrada come from the same Latin word.^[2][3] It is related to stratum, strew and stray.^[3][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A paved road, a highway: Old English strǣt, about 725, in Beowulf.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline calls it one of the rare words used in England continuously since Roman times.^[2] In Old English it was the usual word for the Roman roads, as in Watling Street and Ermine Street,^[2][8] and as late as Coverdale's Bible it meant a road or causeway rather than a town street.^[9] The town street also goes back to Anglo-Saxon times,^[8] and Middle English used strete both for a road in a town and for a road between towns.^[2] The people of a street have been the street since the late 14th century.^[2] Streetwalker is from 1592, street lamp from 1799, the American streetcar from 1862, streetwise from 1965 and street people from 1967.^[3] The man in the street is from the late 18th century,^[8] and the street as the people as a political force from 1931.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English strǣt (Beowulf).^[3]
• late 14th century – the people of a street.^[2]
• 1592 – streetwalker.^[3]
• late 18th century – the man in the street.^[8]
• 1862 – streetcar.^[3]
• 1931 – the street, political opinion.^[2]
• 1965 – streetwise.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A public road in a town or city, usually with pavements and buildings along it.
2. The people who live or work in a street.
3. (historical) A paved road; a Roman road.
4. The urban environment, especially of the poor or homeless: living on the street.

Adjective

1. Of, in or near the street: street theatre.

Word family

• streetless
• streetlike
• backstreet

Related words

• stratum
• strew
• stray
• road

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker