The story
- Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*watarweg
- Old English · inherited fromwæterweġ“waterway”
- Middle English · inherited fromwaterwey
- English todaywaterway
From Middle English waterwey, from Old English wæterweġ (“waterway”), from Proto-West Germanic *watarweg, equivalent to water + way. Compare Saterland Frisian Woaterwai (“waterway”), West Frisian wetterwei (“waterway”), Dutch waterweg (“waterway”), German Wasserweg (“waterway”), Danish vandvej (“waterway”), Swedish vattenväg (“waterway”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.