traveler

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English travailour, also traveler,^[2] formed from Middle English travailen + -our,^[3][4] that is the verb travel with the agent suffix -er.^[5][6] The Middle English Dictionary also points to Old French travailleor and Anglo-Norman travailur.^[2] Travel began as a variant of travail,^[7][6] which is from Old French travailler (“to toil, labour; originally to trouble, torment”), from Vulgar Latin *tripaliō (“to torture”), from *tripalium (“instrument of torture”) (Late Latin trepalium), said to come from Latin tripalis (“having three stakes”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Late 14th century, as travailour, one who makes a journey; it was often used of horses,^[6] and the OED's first record, of a person on a journey, is from about 1375.^[8] The Middle English Dictionary shows that the same word also meant a worker or labourer, a tormentor, and a woman in labour.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense "toiler, worker" belonged to the older meaning of travail, and was left behind when travel became the word for journeying.^[6][2] From 1556 a traveller was especially someone who journeys abroad or through strange places.^[8][6] Later uses narrowed it to particular kinds of travellers: a tramp or wandering beggar (1763, now dialect), a commercial traveller, an agent who goes from place to place taking orders for a firm (1790),^[8][5] and, in Australia, a swagman.^[9][5][10] In Ireland and Britain it is the name of a member of the travelling people, a nomadic community.^[11][10] It was also used of birds on long flights (1660), and of a part of a machine that runs along a support (1828);^[8] sailors used it for an iron ring or thimble that slides along a rope or spar.^[12][10] In slang it once meant a highwayman.^[13] Traveler's check is from 1891.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1375 – one who travels; a wayfarer.^[8][6]
• 1556 – one who journeys abroad.^[8][6]
• 1660 – of birds making long flights.^[8]
• 1763 – a tramp, a wanderer (now dialect).^[8]
• 1790 – a commercial traveller.^[8][5]
• 1828 – a part of a machine that travels along a support.^[8]
• 1891 – traveler's check.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who travels, especially often or to distant places: She is a seasoned traveler who has crossed four continents.^[3][10]
2. A traveling salesman or commercial traveller.^[3][10][5]
3. A member of the travelling people, a nomadic community in Ireland and Britain; an Irish Traveller.^[10][11]
4. (Australia) A swagman or wandering worker.^[10][9][5]
5. A part of a mechanism that moves along a fixed course, such as a thimble or ring sliding on a rope or spar.^[10][3][12]
6. Something, such as a horse or vehicle, that travels fast or well.^[3][8]
7. (dialect) A tramp.^[3][8]

Word family

• nontraveler

Related words

• travel
• travail
• travelogue

Usage notes

Traveler is the American spelling.^[10][4] British English writes traveller.^[10][4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f 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 e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Morris, Edward E. (1898), Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages, London: Macmillan
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b Dolan, Terence Patrick (2004), A Dictionary of Hiberno-English: The Irish Use of English, 2nd ed., Dublin: Gill & Macmillan
12. ^ a b Smyth, W. H. (1867), The Sailor's Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, London: Blackie and Son
13. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com