Derivation of the word

When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by two different routes. It derives ultimately, from the Latin for heel, calx and as near certainly as may be, comes from the trampling technique for consolidating earthworks. In antiquity, the construction was trodden down, one layer at a time, by people such as slaves. Alternatively, a flock of sheep might be used. Today, a machine does the job. The same technique would have been used for road embankments, raised river banks, sea banks and fortification earthworks.

The second derivation route is simply the hard, trodden surface of a path. The name by this route came to be applied to a firmly-surfaced road. It is now little-used except in dialect and in the names of roads which were originally notable for their solidly-made surface. The word is comparable in both meanings with the French chaussée, from a form of which it reached English by way of Norman French. The French adjective, chaussée, carries the meaning of having been given a hardened surface, and is used to mean either paved or shod. As a noun chaussée is used on the one hand for a metalled carriageway, and on the other for an embankment with or without a road.