Turnpyke

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A main road on which travellers pay a fee at gates along the way ; a spiked or barred revolving gate that blocks passage across a road
2. An archaic term for a highway that charges tolls to those who use it ; a rotating frame of bars or spikes used to block a path
3. A road that users must pay to travel along ; a gate formed of revolving bars that stops livestock or people from passing

Etymology: A turnpike was a barrier made from a spiked bar, or pike, mounted on a post so it could be swung round across a road. "Turn" describes that motion, and "pike" names the pointed spar that did the blocking. The compound is therefore a literal description of the device: a pike that turns. The gate was mainly a way to stop travellers until they had paid, so the name soon moved from the barrier to the road it guarded and to the tolls collected there. Turnpike roads, maintained by trusts that charged for passage, were a familiar feature of the English landscape for a long time. "Turnpyke," with a "y," is an older spelling variant of the same word, following the common early-modern habit of writing the vowel that is now usually spelled "i" with "y".