From Paved Roads to Rocky Paths
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Tap any rung for its meaning.
Two stepping stones: the G (rung 1, for paged) and the S (rung 2, for pages) — each borrowed to keep a rung a real word, then given back before the end. There may be several par routes — the census above shows which ones climbers actually took.
Past tense of pave: to cover a surface with stone, brick, or asphalt.
From Old French 'paver,' derived from Latin 'pavire,' meaning to beat or tread down. The idea is of compacting or laying a firm surface underfoot. 'Pavement' comes from the same root and originally meant any hard-surfaced floor or road.
Full entry on Wiktionary ↗Full of rocks, or unsteady and difficult.
Formed from 'rock' plus the suffix '-y,' meaning having the quality of. 'Rock' itself comes from Old French 'roque' or 'roche,' with uncertain earlier origins. The figurative sense of 'rocky' meaning unstable or troubled developed naturally from the idea of uneven, difficult terrain.
Full entry on Wiktionary ↗Definitions give each word’s most common meaning — the full entries live at Wiktionary.