Etymologically
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voyager

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈvɔɪɪdʒə(r)/, /ˈvɔɪədʒə(r)/[1]
  • US: /ˈvɔɪɪdʒɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French voyagier,[2] which the OED also gives as veaigier and voyager (modern voyageur); the OED allows that it may instead have been formed from English voyage + -er.[3] Johnson (1755) derived it from the French voyageur.[4] The French noun comes from voiage (“journey, travel”),[2] the source of voyage, from Late Latin viāticum (“a journey”), in classical Latin provisions for a journey,[2][3] from viāticus (“of a journey”), from via (“road, journey”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who journeys; a traveller by land: 1477, in Caxton's translation of R. Le Fèvre's History of Jason.[3] Etymonline dates the word to the late 15th century and notes that in early Modern English it meant especially one who travels over seas.[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was a traveller in general, and about 1500 the word was also used of a knight errant.[3] By 1622, in Drayton's Poly-Olbion, it meant one who goes on a voyage by sea,[3] and Johnson (1755) defined it only as one who travels by sea.[4] Figurative uses followed from 1698,[3] and the word was later used of travellers through the air.[2] In American drug slang of about 1969 a voyager was someone under the influence of LSD, on a "trip".[5] Voyager is also the name of the two American spacecraft launched in 1977 to study the outer planets.[2][6]

Timeline

  • 1477 – a traveller by land.[3]
  • c. 1500 – a knight errant (obsolete).[3]
  • 1622 – one who goes on a sea voyage; a navigator.[3]
  • 1698 – figurative uses.[3]
  • 1969 – slang, a person under the influence of LSD.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person who makes a voyage or voyages, especially by sea or into space; a traveller or navigator: The voyagers sighted land after six weeks at sea.[7][3][4]
  2. (slang) A person under the influence of LSD.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  5. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  6. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster