traffic

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtræf.ɪk/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French trafique (“trade”), traffique,^[2][3] from Italian traffico (early 14th century),^[2][3][4] from trafficare (“to carry on trade”),^[2][3] which is of uncertain origin.^[2][3][5] The OED (1989) takes the noun to be the noun of action from the verb.^[2] Corominas, like the OED, proposes Vulgar Latin *trānsfricāre “to rub across”, from Latin trāns- “across” and fricāre “to rub”, with an original sense “to touch repeatedly, handle”;^[3][2] or the second element may be an unexplained alteration of Latin facere “to make”.^[2] Klein suggests Arabic tafriq “distribution”,^[2] and a 19th-century derivation from Arabic taraffaqa “to seek profit” is no longer accepted.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Trade, commerce: 1505 in Barnhart and the OED, figuratively;^[3][6] the transportation of merchandise for trade is from 1506,^[6] about 1500 in Etymonline.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word originally referred to the commercial transport of goods or passengers,^[7] and in the 1560s widened to trade and the exchange of goods.^[2] The spelling traffick, rare before 1600, was common in the 17th century, and traffic prevailed in the 18th.^[2][3] A suggestion of sinister or illicit dealing is by the 1660s,^[2][6] and survives in trafficking, dealing in drugs or people.^[7] People and vehicles coming and going along a route is from before 1825,^[3][2] and the business done by a railway by 1858.^[2] The word became prominent in city planning for motor cars from about 1915;^[2] the traffic circle is American from 1942,^[3] the traffic warden first appeared in London in 1960,^[7] and traffic calming, translating German Verkehrsberuhigung, arrived in the late 1980s.^[7] The verb, “to carry on trade”, is from 1540 or 1542.^[4][3] The k in trafficking keeps the hard sound before -ing, as in picnicking.^[2]

Timeline

• 1505 – trade, commerce.^[3][6]
• 1540 – verb, to trade.^[4]
• 1660s – illicit dealing.^[2]
• 1825 – the coming and going of people and vehicles.^[3]
• 1858 – the business of a railway.^[2]
• c. 1915 – motor traffic in city planning.^[2]
• 1942 – traffic circle.^[3]
• 1960 – traffic warden.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The vehicles, people, ships or aircraft moving along a route; their movement.
2. The messages or data passing through a communications system.
3. Trade, especially illegal or improper commerce: the drug traffic.
4. The business of carrying passengers and goods; the number carried.

Verb

1. To trade, especially in something illegal: trafficking in drugs.

Word family

• trafficker
• trafficless
• intertraffic
• trafficator
• trafficability
• trafficable
• air traffic
• traffic court

Related words

• trafficking
• friction

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 r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press