path

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a course of conduct

   the path of virtue

2. 2
   noun

   a line or route along which something travels or moves

   the hurricane demolished houses in its path

3. 3
   noun

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

   Yet ere to to-morrow's ſun ſhall ſhew his head, / The dewy paths of meadows we will tread, / For crowns and chaplets to adorn thy head.

4. 4
   noun

   A course taken.

   the path of a meteor, of a caravan, or of a storm

5. 5
   noun

   A metaphorical course or route; progress.

   ⁠But thou and I have shaken hands, ⁠Till growing winters lay me low; ⁠My paths are in the fields I know, And thine in undiscover’d lands.

6. 6
   noun

   A method or direction of proceeding.

   All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.

7. 7
   noun

   A human-readable specification for a location within a hierarchical or tree-like structure, such as a file system or as part of a URL.

   Use the network path \\Marketing\Files to find the documents you need.

8. 8
   noun

   A slot available for allocation to a railway train over a given route in between other trains.

   "Permissive" working allows more than one train to be in a block section at one time but trains must be run at low speed in order to stop on sight behind the train in front. Such working is often authorised to allow freight trains to "bunch" together to await a path through a bottleneck instead of being strung out over several block sections, as would be necessary if absolute working were in force.

Etymology

From Middle English path, peth, from Old English pæþ (“path, track”), from Proto-West Germanic *paþ, from Proto-Germanic *paþaz (“path”). The Proto-Germanic term is possibly borrowed from Iranian, from Proto-Iranian *pántaHh, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *pántaHs, from Proto-Indo-European *póntoh₁s, from the root *pent- (“to pass”), but this is disputed. Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Paad, Pad (“path”), West Frisian paad (“path”), Dutch pad (“path”), German Pfad (“path”), German Low German Padd (“path”), Luxembourgish Pad (“path”). Indo-Iranian cognates could be Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬧𐬙𐬃 (paṇtā̊, “wa…