etymology · 1200s–1400s
travel
Drift #26 · Jun 7, 2026 · abstract
Meaning comparison
Today it means
to make a journey; to move from one place to another
It used to mean (1200s–1400s)
to labour painfully; to toil; to suffer hardship
Etymology
'Travel' is the same word as 'travail' — both come from Old French 'travailler,' meaning to toil, to suffer, to be tormented. They are derived from a Latin torture device, 'trepalium.' In the Middle Ages, journeying and suffering were virtually synonymous, so 'travail' gradually split into two words: one for effort, one for movement.
The Drift
How the meaning shifted over time
the drift
In Historical Context
The pilgrims travelled for thirty days through mud and bitter cold, arriving at the shrine worn to the bone and grateful merely to have survived the road.
drift fact
'Travail' split from 'travel' in the 1300s — one word became two, one keeping the suffering, the other keeping only the movement.
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