How a Roman frame of three stakes became suffering, hard work, a dangerous journey and finally a holiday. Tap ▶ to hear each step read aloud.
In late Latin, a tripalium was a frame made of three stakes (tri = three, palus = stake). It was probably used to hold horses still for shoeing, and sometimes to punish people.
From this frame came the Old French verb travailler: to torment, to make someone suffer, and then to suffer yourself.
Hard work is a kind of suffering, so travail came to mean work. That is still its meaning in French: le travail, travailler.
English kept travail for painful effort, and a woman giving birth is still en travail in French (in labour).
In the Middle Ages, a journey was exhausting and dangerous: bad roads, mud, robbers and cold inns. So in English, travail came to mean a tiring journey.
By the 1300s it was spelled differently: travel.
With good roads, trains, ships and planes, travelling became easy and fun. Today travel means going somewhere, often on holiday.
Examples: travel agent
, I love to travel
, travel light
.
| travail | painful effort (English); work (French) |
| traveller | someone on a journey |
| travelogue | a film or talk about a journey |
Travail and travel are the same word. French kept the “work” meaning, English kept the “journey” meaning.
“Travel was torture before trains.”