wayside

Etymology

It is formed from English way + side.^[2][3][4][5] The phrase “by the wayside” refers originally to the parable of the sower, after Ancient Greek παρὰ τὴν ὁδόν (parà tḕn hodón, “beside the path”) in the Greek of the Gospels.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The side of a road or path, the land along it: about 1440, in the alliterative Morte Arthure, a poem perhaps composed before 1400.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to about 1400,^[3] Dictionary.com to 1350–1400,^[6] and Hoad to the 14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Biblical phrase to fall by the wayside is recorded from Tyndale's translation of Luke 8 (1526), first of the seed that fell beside the path, and came to mean to drop out or fail to keep going, or to become neglected or superseded.^[2][3][5] Go by the wayside, to be put aside for something more pressing, is a later variant.^[7][2] The attributive or adjectival use, as in wayside inn or wayside flowers, is recorded from 1649;^[2] the 1989 edition of the OED had dated it only from 1807.^[8] In Canada a wayside was also a small railway station between larger ones.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – the side of a road or path.^[2]
• 1526 – to fall by the wayside, in Tyndale's New Testament.^[2]
• 1649 – adjective, situated or occurring beside a road.^[2]
• 1936 – in Canada, an intermediate railway station.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The edge of a road or path, or the land beside it: Poppies grew along the wayside.^[7][10][2]
2. fall by the wayside: to fail to continue, drop out, or fall into neglect.^[7][2][10]
3. go by the wayside: to be set aside in favour of something more urgent.^[7][2]
4. (Canada) A railway station between larger ones; a way station.^[9]

Adjective

1. Situated or growing beside a road or path: a wayside shrine.^[7][10][2]
2. Next to a highway and easy for motorists to reach.^[10]

Related words

• way
• side

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Dollinger, Stefan, ed., A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, 3rd ed. (online), Vancouver: University of British Columbia, dchp.arts.ubc.ca
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster