way

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English wei,^[2][3] inherited from Old English weg (“road, path, course of travel”),^[2][4][5][6] in Mercian wæg,^[2] from Proto-Germanic *wegaz (“course of travel, way”),^[2][7][8][9] a noun derived from the strong verb *weganą (“to move, carry”).^[8][9][7] It is cognate with Old Frisian wei, Old Saxon weg, Dutch weg, Old High German weg and German Weg, Old Norse vegr and Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌲𐍃 (wigs).^[4][5][8][3] The OED explains that the Germanic verb first referred to carrying loads, so that the noun denoted the road along which goods were carried, as wain denoted the vehicle.^[5] The Germanic base goes back to Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to go, move, carry”),^{[2][10][7][4]} also the source of Latin vehō (“to carry”),^[4][11][7] from which come vehicle and vector, and of wagon.^[7][2] Barnhart compares the spelling of weigh.^[4] The adverb, "far" or "very", is probably a shortening of away.^{[5][2][12][13]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A track or road for travelling along; the line or course of travel, and the distance to be travelled: Old English weg, recorded before 800,^[4][2] with the OED's first quotation from the Old English Martyrology.^[5] Barnhart dates the sense of manner or style to before 800 as well.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old English weg regularly gave Middle English wei, and after ei and ai merged the spelling ay came to be preferred.^[5][4] In Old English the word already meant room or freedom to move, the course of a person's life and, in the plural, habits of life in a moral sense, as well as a method of proceeding.^[2] The concrete sense of a path remained the core, and many specific meanings grew from it, some suggested by Latin via and French voie and some by translations of the Bible.^[4] Barnhart dates the sense of distance (a long way off) to before 899, in Alfred's translation of Bede, that of means to about 1175, and that of direction (look this way) to before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi.^[4] Weekley placed the sense of manner and method, as in ways and means, in late Middle English,^[14] while Barnhart finds it before 800.^[4] To make way is from about 1200, in a bad way (of a state or condition) dates from the mid-15th century, and get one's way from the 1590s;^[2] Weekley thought that give way and have one's way first referred to precedence on a road.^[14] In the Old English Gospels the word is already a name of Christ as the means of salvation.^[5] At sea it meant a ship's progress through the water by the 1660s,^[2] and since 1639 the plural ways meant the timbers on which a ship is built and launched.^[4] From 1700 a way could be a track laid with rails for wagons from a colliery, a sense later taken over by railway.^[5] Johnson (1755) listed first "the road in which one travels", then a broad road, a length of journey and a direction of motion.^[15] The adverb, a short form of away, is recorded from about 1275, in Laȝamon's Brut,^[5] and its originally American sense "far", as in way down, from 1833.^[5][13] The OED records the slang sense "very, extremely" from 1965,^[5] and Etymonline dates way cool to 1984.^[2]

Timeline

• before 800 – a road, path or course of travel; also a manner or style.^[4]
• before 899 – a distance, in Alfred's translation of Bede.^[4]
• c. 1175 – a means of doing something.^[4]
• c. 1200 – make way, to give room for passing.^[2]
• c. 1275 – adverb, away, in Laȝamon's Brut.^[5]
• before 1325 – a direction, in the Cursor Mundi.^[4]
• mid-15th century – a state or condition, such as in a bad way.^[2]
• 1639 – ways, the timbers on which a ship is built and launched.^[4]
• 1700 – a track laid with rails for wagons, especially from a colliery.^[5]
• 1742 – ways, habits or customs, in Fielding.^[4]
• 1833 – adverb, far, as in way down.^[5]
• 1965 – adverb, slang, very, extremely.^[5] Etymonline dates it to 1984.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A manner, method or means of doing something: There is more than one way to cook rice.^[16][4]
2. A route or direction: Which way is the station?^[16][4]
3. A road, path or track for travelling along.^[16][5][12]
4. Room or space to move or act, as in make way and in the way.^[16][2]
5. A distance: We still have a long way to go.^[16][4]
6. A journey or passage, as in on the way.^[16]
7. A characteristic style or manner; in the plural, habits: She has her own way of doing things.^[16][4]
8. A state or condition, such as in a bad way.^[2]
9. In the plural, the timbers on which a ship is built and launched.^[4]

Adverb

1. (informal) Far; by a great distance or amount: way down the valley, way too expensive.^[12][5][13]
2. (slang) Very, extremely.^[12][5]
3. (colloquial, chiefly Scottish and US) Away.^[5][13]

Word family

• wayless

Related words

• away
• weigh
• wain
• wagon
• vehicle
• vector
• via
• wayward
• waylay
• railway

Usage notes

The call way! to make a horse stop, recorded from 1836, is imitative and comparable to whoa;^[5][12] the Survey of English Dialects found it in most English counties.^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins