Etymologically
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street

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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
  • 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