When I ponder upon the term pavement, my mind conjures up an image of a modern asphalt road, yet historically, it encompassed any solid ground covering, particularly tiled floors. Its origins can be traced back to Old French, which in turn leads to Latin pavimentum, signifying “floor” or “solid surface”. This Latin term stems from the verb pavire, meaning “to beat” – the association being that firm floors required beating with tools. Pavire can be ultimately linked to the Proto-Indo-European root paw, denoting “strike”, which also forms the basis of various words like amputate, reputation, berate, dispute, and pit. According to Google NGrams, the usage of the term pavement has been steadily declining since its peak in 1913, with Google Trends reflecting a decrease in searches as well.
