street

street (n.) O.E. stret (Mercian, Kentish), stræt (W.Saxon) "street, high road," an early West Germanic borrowing from L.L. strata, used elliptically for via strata "paved road," from fem. pp. of L. sternere "lay down, spread out, pave," from PIE *stre-to- "to stretch, extend," from root *stere- "to spread, extend, stretch out" (see STRUCTURE (Cf. structure)). The Latin is also the source of Sp. estrada, O.Fr. estrée, It. strada.

"The normal term in OE for a paved way or Roman road, later extended to other roads, urban streets, and in SE dialects to a street of dwellings, a straggling village or hamlet" [Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names]. Originally of Roman roads (e.g. Watling Street, Icknield Street). "In the Middle Ages, a road or way was merely a direction in which people rode or went, the name street being reserved for the made road." [Weekley] Used since c.1400 to mean "the people in the street;" modern sense of "the realm of the people as the source of political support" dates from 1931. Man in the street "ordinary person, non-expert" is attested from 1831. Street-car is attested from 1862. Street-walker "common prostitute" first recorded 1590s. Street people is from 1967; street smarts is from 1972; street-credibility is from 1979.