traffic

The story

1. Tagalog · derived fromtrapik
2. Arabic · derived fromتَفْرِيق“distribution, dispersion”
3. Vulgar Latin · derived from*trānsfrīcāre“to rub across”
4. Italian · derived fromtraffico“traffic”
5. Middle French · borrowed fromtrafique
6. English todaytraffic

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-”). Displaced native Old English mangung (“traffic, trade, commerce”). The adjectival sense is possibly influenced by Tagalog trapik and follows a general trend in Philippine English to construct a noun from an adjective.