journey | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

95 entries found.

mid-14c., "travel from one place to another," from Anglo-French journeyer, Old French journoiier "work by day; go, walk, travel," from journée "a day's work or travel" (see journey (n.)). Related: Journeyed; journeying.

journey (n.)

c. 1200, "a defined course of traveling; one's path in life," from Old French journée "a day's length; day's work or travel" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *diurnum "day," noun use of neuter of Latin diurnus "of one day" (from dies "day," from PIE root *dyeu- "to shine"). The French fem, suffix -ée, from Latin -ata, was joined to nouns in French to make nouns expressing the quantity contained in the original noun, and thus also relations of times (soirée, matinée, année) or objects produced.

Meaning "act of traveling by land or sea" is c. 1300. In Middle English it also meant "a day" (c. 1400); a day's work (mid-14c.); "distance traveled in one day" (mid-13c.), and as recently as Johnson (1755) the primary sense was still "the travel of a day." From the Vulgar Latin word also come Spanish jornada, Italian giornata.

bonjour (interj.)

1570s, French, literally "good day," from bon "good," from Latin bonus "good" (see bonus) + jour "day" (see journey (n.)).

du jour (adj.)

from French plat du jour "dish of the day," which appeared from early 20c. on restaurant menus; abstracted as an all-purpose modifier by 1989. For jour "day" see journey (n.).

journeyman (n.)

"qualified worker at a craft or trade who works for wages for another" (a position between apprentice and master), early 15c., from journey (n.), preserving the etymological sense of the word ("a day"), + man (n.). Deprecatory figurative sense of "hireling, drudge" is from 1540s. Its American English colloquial shortening jour (adj.) is attested from 1835.

matinee (n.)

"afternoon performance, an entertainment held in the daytime," 1848, from French matinée (musicale), from matinée "morning" (with a sense here of "daytime"), from matin "morning" (but here "afternoon" or "daytime"), from Old French matines (see matins). Originally as a French word in English; it lost its foreignness by late 19c. For the French suffix, compare journey.

soiree (n.)

"an evening party," 1793, from French soirée, from soir "evening," from Old French soir "evening, night" (10c.), from Latin sero (adv.) "late, at a late hour," from serum "late hour," neuter of serus "late," from PIE *se-ro-, suffixed form of root *se- (2) "long, late" (source also of Sanskrit sayam "in the evening," Lithuanian sietuva "deep place in a river," Old English sið "after," German seit "since," Gothic seiþus "late," Middle Irish sith, Middle Breton hir "long"). For suffix, compare journey.

*dyeu-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to shine," in derivatives "sky, heaven, god."

It forms all or part of: adieu; adios; adjourn; Asmodeus; circadian; deific; deify; deism; deity; deodand; deus ex machina; deva; dial; diary; Diana; Dianthus; diet (n.2) "assembly;" Dioscuri; Dis; dismal; diurnal; diva; Dives; divine; joss; journal; journalist; journey; Jove; jovial; Julia; Julius; July; Jupiter; meridian; Midi; per diem; psychedelic; quotidian; sojourn; Tuesday; Zeus.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit deva "god" (literally "shining one"); diva "by day;" Avestan dava- "spirit, demon;" Greek delos "clear;" Latin dies "day," deus "god;" Welsh diw, Breton deiz "day;" Armenian tiw "day;" Lithuanian dievas "god," diena "day;" Old Church Slavonic dini, Polish dzień, Russian den "day;" Old Norse tivar "gods;" Old English Tig, genitive Tiwes, name of a god.

voyage (n.)

c. 1300, from Old French voiage "travel, journey, movement, course, errand, mission, crusade" (12c., Modern French voyage), from Late Latin viaticum "a journey" (in classical Latin "provisions for a journey"), noun use of neuter of viaticus "of or for a journey," from via "road, journey, travel" (see via).

travel (v.)

late 14c., "to journey," from travailen (1300) "to make a journey," originally "to toil, labor" (see travail). The semantic development may have been via the notion of "go on a difficult journey," but it also may reflect the difficulty of any journey in the Middle Ages. Replaced Old English faran. Related: Traveled; traveling. Traveled (adj.) "having made journeys, experienced in travel" is from early 15c. Traveling salesman is attested from 1885.

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