Etymologically
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travel

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈtræv.əl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English travelen, a variant of travailen (“to toil, labour; to make a journey”),[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French travailler,[4] which also gave travail.[3][5] The form arose from a shift of stress in travailen.[3] Word Origins traces it to Late Latin trepālium, an instrument of torture made of three stakes.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

“To make a journey”: about 1290[7] or the 13th century,[8] first in the form travailen (1300);[3][2] travel as such is from 1375.[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense development may have come from “to go on a difficult journey”, or simply reflect the hardship of any journey in the Middle Ages.[2][3] The two forms were once interchangeable,[6] but travel, used in its special sense, has flourished while the old word faded.[2] The Old English verb for travelling was faran, fare.[2] The noun, the action of travelling, is from about 1375,[3][7] and travels, an account of a journey, from 1591.[7][2] The general sense “to move from one place to another”, also in mechanics, is by the 1660s.[2] Of a Methodist preacher, “to ride a circuit”, is from 1789,[7] and of a commercial traveller from 1830.[7] The travel agent is from 1925, and the travel agency from 1927.[3] Stevenson wrote in 1881 that it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 1290 – to make a journey (as travailen).[7]
  • 1375 – the form travel.[3]
  • c. 1375 – noun, the act of travelling.[3]
  • 1591 – travels, an account of a journey.[7]
  • 1660s – to move from place to place.[2]
  • 1830 – of a commercial traveller.[7]
  • 1925 – travel agent.[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To go from one place to another, especially to a distant place; to journey.
  2. To go from place to place as a salesperson.
  3. Of light or sound, to move or be transmitted.
  4. To pass over or through: travelled the world.

Noun

  1. The act of travelling.
  2. (plural) A series of journeys; an account of them.
  3. Movement of a part of a machine; the distance it moves.

Word family

  • travelable
  • traveler
  • traveller
  • outtravel
  • untraveled
  • pretravel
  • travelogue
  • adventure travel

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 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  5. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster