Etymograph

English

traffic

Traffic comes from Middle French trafique ‘commerce’, from Italian traffico, from trafficare ‘to carry on trade’, whose deeper origin is disputed.

  1. Italianc. 1300–presenttrafficare‘to carry on trade’
  2. Italian, derivedc. 1300–presenttraffico‘traffic, trade’
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600trafique‘commerce’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1595traffic

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Italianc. 1300–presenttrafficare‘to carry on trade’
  2. Italian, derivedc. 1300–presenttraffico‘traffic, trade’
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600trafique‘commerce’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1595traffic

Earliest quotation: c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, The Prologue: “VVhoſe miſaduentures, piteous ouerthrovves, / (Through the continuing of…”

The story

Potentially from Vulgar Latin *trānsfrīcāre (‘to rub across’); Klein instead suggests the Italian has ultimate origin in Arabic تَفْرِيق (tafrīq, “distribution, dispersion”), reshaped to match the native prefix tra- (‘trans-’). The adjectival sense is possibly influenced by Tagalog trapik and follows a general trend in Philippine English to construct a noun from an adjective.

Every English word from Italian trafficare

Today it means

noun Moving pedestrians or vehicles, or the flux or passage thereof.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Italian trafficare / traffic

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