archway is a compound of arch (from Old French arche, from Latin arcus 'bow, arch') and the native English way (from Old English weg). Morphologically, the word is transparent as a compound: its parts remain visible in the modern spelling, while the older history of those parts supplies the deeper ancestry. In modern use, the noun sense is "a curved structure forming a passage or entrance beneath an arch", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The wider word family includes related English forms such as arch, way, archeway, showing how the same base continues to support neighboring English vocabulary. The principal historical forms in the chain include Latin arcus, Old English weg, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material.