thoroughfare

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English thurghfare, also thoruhfare and thorowfare,^[2][3][4] formed from Middle English thurgh (“through”) + fare (“passage, road”),^[3][5][6] with thorough in its older use, before it had separated from through.^[6] The OED derives the spellings in through- from the prefix through- and those in thorough- from thorough-.^[7] Fare is here the noun meaning journey or road, from Old English faru and fær, from faran (“to go”).^[3][6] Old English had þurhfær, an inner place,^[2] used in the plural for the innermost parts of something, translating Latin penetrālia,^[7] but the OED finds no continuity with it: the word was apparently formed again in the late 14th century.^[7] Similar formations are West Frisian trochfeart, Middle Dutch dōrevaert, now Dutch doorvaart, Middle Low German dörchvārt and Middle High German durchvart, now German Durchfahrt, all meaning a passage or way through.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A passage or way through, also figurative: about 1405, in a manuscript of Chaucer's Knight's Tale, composed about 1385,^[7] where the world is a thurghfare full of woe.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century, as a passage or way through and also a way station.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English a thoroughfare was also a town on a route: a 15th-century glossary uses it for Latin oppidum, and Pecock asked why a town that is a thoroughfare toward London has so many inns.^[2] The OED records this sense from 1424 to 1907.^[7] The modern sense, a road or street forming a route between two places, a public way open at both ends, is first found in a statute of 1540,^[7] and it now usually means a main road.^[8][5] The word was also used of the action of passing through (from 1597) and of waterways open to ships (from 1598); in North America it came to mean a narrow channel between two larger bodies of water (from 1837), often in place names.^[7][5] The sign no thoroughfare, no public way through, is recorded from 1756.^[7] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a passage through; a passage without any stop or let", quoting Shakespeare's "Th' Hyrcanian deserts are as thoroughfares now".^[9] A verb, to make a thoroughfare in or across, was formed from the noun in 1818,^[7] beside an older verb meaning to go through, inherited from Old English.^[7][10] In African American slang of the 1930s a thoroughfare was a promiscuous woman.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1405 – a passage or way through, also figurative, in Chaucer's Knight's Tale.^[7][2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century.^[6]
• 1424 – a town on a highway or route (obsolete by 1907).^[7]
• 1540 – a road or street forming a route between two places, open at both ends.^[7]
• 1597 – the action of passing through; passage.^[7]
• 1598 – a waterway open to shipping.^[7]
• 1756 – no thoroughfare, no public way through.^[7]
• 1818 – verb, to form a thoroughfare in or across.^[7]
• 1837 – in North America, a narrow channel between two larger bodies of water.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A road or street open at both ends, especially a main road carrying through traffic: The new bypass took the lorries off the town's busiest thoroughfare.^[8][5][7]
2. A way through, or the right to pass through, as in the sign no thoroughfare.^[8][7]
3. A waterway used for travel or shipping; in North America, a narrow channel joining two larger bodies of water.^[5][7]
4. The action of passing through; passage, transit.^[5][7]
5. (archaic) A town through which much traffic passes.^[5][7]

Verb

1. (rare) To pass through, or to make a thoroughfare in or across.^[10][5][7]

Related words

• thorough
• through
• fare
• throughway

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com