Waystation

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A place where travelers stop temporarily while moving from one location to another
2. A designated spot for resting or changing transportation on a travel route
3. An intermediate location used to pause or switch means of travel during a trip

Etymology: "Waystation" is simply the closed-up spelling of "way station," and its history is the history of its two parts. "Way" comes from Old English "weg," a word shared across the Germanic languages, which has meant a road or path since the earliest records. "Station" arrived in English from Old French "estation," itself from Latin "statio," a standing or a place where one stands, and it carried the sense of a fixed post or stopping point long before railways adopted it. Put together, the compound describes a point along a route where travelers pause, which is exactly what the word still means.

Synonyms: stopover, rest stop