Editing Street (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Via_dell'Abbondanza_1.JPG|thumb|[[Roman roads|Roman street]] in [[Pompeii]]. Its east–west-oriented ''[[Decumanus Maximus]]'']]
The word ''street'' has its origins in the Latin ''[[wikt:strata#Latin|strata]]'' (meaning "paved road" – an abbreviation from ''[[wikt:via#Latin|via]] [[wikt:strata#Latin|strata]]''<ref>History of English, Jonathan Culpeper, Routledge 1997, p. 2</ref>); it is thus related to ''[[stratum]]'' and ''[[stratification (archeology)|stratification]]''. The first recorded use of word ''stratæ'' referring to the road has been made by [[Eutropius (historian)|Eutropius]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Guest, Edwin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XEYjMYf-AFUC&pg=PA188|title=On certain Foreign Terms, adopted by our Ancestors prior to their Settlement in the British Islands (Pt. II)|year=1852|journal=Proceedings of the Philological Society|volume=5|number=124|pages=188|author-link = Edwin Guest}}</ref> Ancient Greek ''[[wikt:στρατός|stratos]]'' means army: Greeks originally built roads to move their armies. [[Old English]] applied the word to [[Roman roads in Britain]] such as [[Ermine Street]], [[Watling Street]], etc. Later it acquired a dialectical meaning of "straggling village", which were often laid out on the verges of Roman roads and these settlements often became named [[Stretton (disambiguation)|Stretton]]<!--intentional link to DAB page-->. In the [[Middle Ages]], a ''road'' was a way people travelled, with ''street'' applied specifically to paved ways.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=street|title=Online Etymology|access-date=2006-11-14}}</ref>