Rodeway

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An old term for a road or the paved way that vehicles and travellers use to pass between places
2. A dated word meaning a thoroughfare or track along which people and carts move from one place to another
3. Refers to an archaic road or passage used for travel, the kind of route once common in older English writing

Etymology: Before it named a lodging chain, the spelling was an old variant of "roadway." Its first element, "rode," is an older spelling of "road," which came from Old English "rād," meaning a riding or a journey on horseback, and the same root gave us "ride." Spellings like "rode" for "road" were common in early modern English, when writers had not yet settled on one form. "Way" is the ordinary Old English word for a path or route, so the compound simply means a road for travel. Today the spelling survives mainly as the name of the Rodeway Inn motel brand, which took the familiar-sounding name rather than any older sense.