port-wayn.1
/ˈpɔːtweɪ/, U.S. /ˈpɔrtˌweɪ/ A public highway, a road connecting two towns; (often) a Roman road.Chiefly as the proper name of roads in various localities.
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society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > road > [noun] > highway or public road
headwayOE
high streetOE
wayOE
port highwayOE
port-streetOE
port-wayOE
highway1257
high gate1324
thoroughfare1540
open road1656
rum pad1665
country road1669
toby lay1807
high toby spice1811
throughgang1856
OE Bounds (Sawyer 1601) in D. Hooke Pre-Conquest Charter-bounds Devon & Cornwall (1994) 419 Of þam heafod londe þæt sceot spers [read þwers] ofer þone port weig. Of þam port wege in ða dene.
c1220 in W. W. Capes Charters & Rec. Hereford Cathedral (1908) 55 (MED) Usque viam regiam que vocatur portwey.
1289 in W. G. Arnott Place Names Deben Valley Parishes (1946) p. xvi [We have the old Market Ways leading to Woodridge Market on the] Portweye..[in Martlesham].
c1300 in J. H. Lumby Cal. Norris Deeds Lancs. (1939) 141 [A butt of land..stretching from] le Pukelfeld [to] le portway..[3 oxgangs in]..le Blakebarndfeld [stretching from] le Pylatefeld [to] le Pordway.
a1475 in A. Clark Eng. Reg. Godstow Nunnery (1905) i. 295 (MED) The said acre strecchith hit-self into the pottwey [read portwey] that ledith to Worton.
a1500 in H. E. Salter & A. H. Cooke Boarstall Cartulary (1930) 183 (MED) Per le Portewey usque Staunford.
1600 P. Holland tr. Livy Rom. Hist. vii. xxx. 270 The whole multitude stand about the gates looking toward the high port-way [L. via] that leadeth from hence thither.
1610 P. Holland tr. W. Camden Brit. i. 557 The port-way or High paved street [L. via Romana lapidibus constrata] named Bath-gate [at Buxton].
1703 W. Somner Antiq. Canterbury (ed. 2) i. 10 By this Gate..anciently lay the Dover-road, or rather the Roman Port-way, or military Way between Dover and Canterbury.
1755 Gen. Mag. Arts & Sci. 4 107 A little above Stilton a Roman Port-way, leading from Dormford to Huntingdon, appears with a very high Bank, and in an old Saxon Charter, 'tis called Ermin-street.
1924 G. Macdonald in F. Haverfield Rom. Occup. Brit. i. 64 (note) Mr. W. H. Stevenson remarks that the boundaries of the pre-Norman charters in the Abingdon Chartulary prove that the Icknield Way was not the Ridge Way but the Port Way at the foot of the Downs.
1999 Oxoniensia 63 11 Its aim was to establish whether the port-way, as a paved Roman road, took the direct route from Kidlington northwards to Kirtlington as some have postulated.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
† port-wayn.2
Mechanics. Obsolete. rare.
In a steam engine: a passage leading to or from a port (port n.3 5a), by which steam enters or leaves the cylinder.
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1849 T. J. Main & T. Brown Marine Steam-engine ii. 71 This valve is for the purpose of regulating the supply of steam to the cylinder... In some engines it is fitted in the steam-pipe, not far from the cylinder; and in others, in a port-way between the jacket and slide-casing.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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n.1OE
n.21849