Potholes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Depressions in a road surface that form due to wear and environmental factors, causing potential hazards for vehicles and requiring maintenance to improve safety
2. Openings or cavities that develop in pavement over time due to the combined impact of traffic and weather conditions, creating risks for drivers and necessitating repairs
3. Hollows or depressions that appear on streets or roads from heavy use and changing weather

Etymology: "Potholes" is the plural of "pothole," and the word is a plain compound of "pot" and "hole." The "pot" part is older and more interesting than it looks. In dialect use it meant a pit, hollow or cavity in the ground, and the same sense appears in Middle English, where "pot" or "potte" named a deep hole dug for mining or for cutting peat. Scots had related words, "pott" and "patt," for a pit dug in the earth or a coalpit, so the road feature borrows an image of a hole dug down into ground. The compound is attested in English from at least 1811, and an earlier form, "pot-hole," appears in records from 1809 in a sense connected to caves. Some writers believe it may continue a medieval term "potholys," used in the plural, though that link is uncertain. Its exact origin in the word "pot" is itself unclear, and it may be related to "pit" or "pote."

Synonyms: craters, depressions