Via

Part of speech: preposition

Pronunciation: /ˈvaɪə/

Definitions

1. by way of or through a particular place, person, or means
2. by means of a specific route, method, or individual that enables passage or transmission from one point to another
3. Passing from one location to another by using a specific path, person, or mechanism as an intermediate

Etymology: Latin "via" meant "road" or "way," and English borrowed its ablative form "viā," which meant "by the way (of)." That is the whole trick behind the preposition: a word for a physical route became a way of saying a thing passes through something on its path. Speakers still hear the road in it when they send a letter "via" a friend or travel "via" a hub city. The same Latin noun may also be a distant cousin of "way" itself, the two possibly doublets descended from one ancient root. The English word is not an inherited native term, though; it came in as a Latin borrowing, which is why it feels so formal in ordinary sentences. Its most unexpected life is in electronics. On a printed circuit board, a "via" is a small hole plated with metal that carries a connection from one layer of the board to another. The name is often explained as an abbreviation of "vertical interconnect access," so a Latin word for a road ended up naming a tiny vertical passage between layers of a circuit.

Synonyms: through, by, along