English
route
Route comes from Middle English route, from Old French rote, from Latin rupta via ‘a path made by force’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErupta viaas rupta via‘a path made by force’literally ‘a path made by force’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400rote‘route’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500route
- Englishearliest quotation 1897route
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErupta viaas rupta via‘a path made by force’literally ‘a path made by force’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400rote‘route’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500route
- Englishearliest quotation 1897route
Earliest quotation: 1897, Winston Churchill: “I corralled the judge, and we started off across…”
The story
Further via Latin ruptus related with bankrupt. Unrelated to road.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *Hrewp- ‘to break, tear (up)’
corruption, corrupt, rob, robbery, disrupt, eruption, rover, rupture, robe, erupt, reaver, 23 more
through Middle English route
Today it means
noun A course or way which is traveled or passed.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin rupta via / route