Street
From Latin: via strata — paved road
Street is an early word to enter our language from Latin. It comes from the contact between the Roman legions and the Germanic tribes in northern Europe before the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes migrated to England. Evidence that this is a very early loan-word in English is the fact that in other Germanic dialects there are very similar words: German Strasse and Dutch straat, for example.
Other related words from the root *STER- (to spread)
From Latin struere to pile up: STRUCTURE; CONSTRUCT, DESTROY, INSTRUCT, OBSTRUCT; also from a related stem, industry
From Old English strew and straw; From German streusel; From Russian perestroika (restructuring)
From Latin sternere, stratum to stretch: stratum, stratify, prostrate
From Greek: sternum and stratos (army)> stratagem, stratocracy
From Old Irish: strath (a wide river valley)
Other early words from Latin (or from Greek through Latin) include:
- mile
- camp
- cheap
- monger
- pound
- post
- copper
- pan
- kitchen
- wall
- wine
- pepper
- pot
- trout
- cheese
- butter
- candle
- sack
- sock
- port
- line
- fork
- inch
- ass
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