traffic
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: trăf'ĭk
ipa: /ˈtɹæfɪk/
rhymes: -æfɪk
Forms: form: traffics
form: traffick
form: traffique
Etymology: From Middle French trafique, traffique (“traffic”), from Italian traffico (“traffic”) from trafficare (“to carry on trade”). Potentially from Vulgar Latin *trānsfrīcāre (“to rub across”); Klein instead suggests the Italian has ultimate origin in Arabic تَفْرِيق (tafrīq, “distribution, dispersion”), reshaped to match the native prefix tra- (“trans-”).
The adjectival sense is possibly influenced by Tagalog trapik and follows a general trend in Philippine English to construct a noun from an adjective.
Senses: examples: text: The traffic is slow during rush hour.
text: VVhoſe miſaduentures, piteous ouerthrovves, / (Through the continuing of their Fathers ſtrife, / And death-markt paſſage of their Parents rage) / Is novv the tvvo hovvres traffique of our Stage.
ref: c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], “The Prologue”, in […] Romeo and Juliet. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, published 1597, →OCLC:
glosses: Moving pedestrians or vehicles, or the flux or passage thereof.
examples: text: I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets for traffic with the Indians).
ref: 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:
text: To assume that the recent investigation of the white slave traffic (and, by the way, a very superficial investigation) has discovered anything new, is, to say the least, very foolish
ref: 1910, Emma Goldman, “The Traffic in Women”, in Anarchism and Other Essays:
text: Its units of study are regions or oceans, long-distance trades [...], the traffic of cults and beliefs between cultures and continents.
ref: 2007, John Darwin, After Tamerlane, Penguin, page 12:
glosses: The commercial transportation or exchange of goods, or the movement of passengers or people.
examples: text: They, in turn, had long dominated the drug traffic in the area of north-east Afghanistan that they controlled during the Taliban years.
ref: 2018 January 9, Alfred W. McCoy, “How the heroin trade explains the US-UK failure in Afghanistan”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
synonyms: trafficking
glosses: The illegal trade or exchange of goods, often drugs.
examples: text: The parish stank of idolatry, abominable rites were practiced in secret, and in all the bounds there was no one had a more evil name for the black traffic than one Alison Sempill, who bode at the Skerburnfoot.
ref: 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
text: Internet traffic to legal pornography sites in the UK comprised 8.5% of all "clicks" on web pages in June – exceeding those for shopping, news, business or social networks, according to new data obtained exclusively by the Guardian.
ref: 2013 July 26, Charles Arthur, “Porn sites get more internet traffic in UK than social networks or shopping”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
glosses: The exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network.
topics: broadcasting
media
radio
glosses: The exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network.
Of CB radio, formal written messages relayed on behalf of others.
examples: text: Those fixed locations which are sold to advertisers become preferred according to the expected page traffic.
ref: 1950, Advertising & Selling (volume 43, part 2, page 53)
topics: advertising
business
marketing
glosses: The exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network.
The amount of attention paid to a particular printed page etc., in a publication.
examples: text: You'll see a draggled damsel / From Billingsgate her fishy traffic bear.
ref: 1716, John Gay, Trivia, or The Art of Walking the Streets of London:
glosses: The commodities of the market.
Derived terms: 5 o'clock traffic
advanced traffic management
air traffic
air traffic control
air traffic controller
brain traffic
dark traffic
felony traffic stop
foot traffic
go and play in the traffic
go and play in traffic
go play in the traffic
go play in traffic
go with the flow of traffic
mall traffic
mixed-traffic
non-traffic
nontraffic
one-way traffic
stop traffic
through traffic
traffic advisory
traffic barrel
traffic barrier
traffic beam
traffic boy
traffic bump
traffic calming
traffic circle
traffic code
traffic cone
traffic conference area
traffic cop
traffic-free
traffic furniture
traffic generator
traffic island
traffic jam
traffic lead
traffic leash
traffic-light
traffic light
traffic mile
traffic officer
traffic of influence
traffic paddle
traffic police
traffic shaping
traffic sign
traffic signal
traffic signal box
traffic spikes
traffic stop
traffic stopper
traffic ticket
traffic violation
traffic warden
way-traffic