viâ

A form of via — A main road or highway, especially in ancient Rome. (Mainly used in set phrases, below.)

Meanings

preposition
  1. UKdatedDated form of via.

    To the right are the Lignes de Normandie (England viâ Dieppe or Le Havre).

    1907, Karl Baedeker, Paris and environs: with routes from London to Paris; handbook for travellers, page 32
    5 more examples

    Stahel's calvary division moved from Warrington, viâ Gainesville, to Fairfax Court-house.

    1886: Comte De Paris, The Battle of Gettysburg, page 248http://books.google.com/books?id=woP8IV7zHGwC&pg=PA248

    In the spring of 1857, I, with several friends, left Hongkong for Shanghai, viâ Foochow, in the small coasting steamer Antelope.

    1890 February 28, W. S. Wetmore, “RECOLLECTIONS OF LIFE IN CHINA IN THE FIFTIES.”, in North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, volume XLIV, number 1178, Shanghai, →OCLC, page 256, column 1

    As to the roads into Manchuria, recent researches prove absolutely that the mediæval Chinese envoys to the Nüchêns followed the present high-road round from Peking, through Shan-hai Kwan, Mukden, Kirin or Changchun, to Alchuk and Sansing. So with the modern Corean road from Söul, or P’ing-yang, by way of I-chou, whence either viâ Mukden and the Manchu road, or viâ the Fêng-hwang road and Kin-chou, where the latter joins the former : these were the roads of ancient times. The Kitan roads I have been over, for the most part, myself ; they are simply the high-roads from Peking through the various passes of the Great Wall, and to this day the caravans of laden camels or mules, the droves of horses, the herds and flocks driven in for sale may be seen coming through in the winter season exactly as they came 2,000 years ago.

    1901, Edward Harper Parker, “Trade Routes”, in China: Her History, Diplomacy and Commerce from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, →OCLC, →OL, pages 79–80

    Mr. Sprent and Mr. Turley pursued their journey down the Yalu, thence to Newchwang, while I came due west viâ Kuantien to Liaoyang.

    1902, J. Miller Graham, “On Circuit”, in East of the Barrier, or, Sidelights on the Manchuria Mission, Fleming H. Revell Company, →OCLC, page 122

    The foundries produced, in 1909, 74,000 tons of pig-iron which were exported viâ Shang-hai to Japan and even to America.

    1912, Claudius Madrolle, Northern China, the Valley of the Blue River, Korea, 2nd edition, Hachette & company, page 386

Origin

  1. Latinviā
  2. Englishviâ

From Latin viā, ablative singular form of via (“way, road”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

viâ. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vi%C3%A2

MLA

“viâ.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vi%C3%A2. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “viâ,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vi%C3%A2.

Source: viâ on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.