Etymograph

English

path

Path comes from Middle English path, from Old English pæþ ‘path’, from Proto-Germanic *paþaz ‘path’, possibly borrowed from Iranian.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*paþaz‘path’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*paþ‘path’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150pæþ‘path’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500path
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1597same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*paþaz‘path’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*paþ‘path’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150pæþ‘path’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500path
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1597same form

Earliest quotation: 1597, Michaell [i.e., Duke Humfrey to Elinor Cobham: “His ghoſtly counſells onely doe aduiſe, / The meanes…”

The story

The Proto-Germanic term is possibly borrowed from Iranian, from Proto-Iranian *pántaHs, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *pántaHs, from Proto-Indo-European *póntoh₁s, from the root *pent- (‘to pass’), but this is disputed.disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *pent-

find, patrol, pad, faze, pontiff, sputnik, pontoon, pontifical, pons, pontifex, 14 more

Today it means

noun A trail for the use of, or worn by, pedestrians.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *paþaz / path

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