causeway

The word 'causeway' has a deceptive modern appearance, as its first element has no relation to the verb 'to cause'. It entered English in the late 15th century from the Anglo-Norman French caucewey, a combination of caucie (a paved road, from Latin via calciata meaning a road stamped firm) and wey (way). The Latin root calx meant 'limestone' or 'heel', and the term came to describe a road made by digging a trench (cause or cauce), filling it with stone, and paving it over, thereby raising it above the surrounding land or water. Thus, a causeway is logically a 'paved way' or a 'road built by the trench-and-fill method', designed as a durable passage across otherwise impassable terrain.

Structure: cause (hollow) + way (road) cause: From Latin calx (heel, limestone), via Old French caucie (paved road). In this context, it evolved to mean a hollow or a trench, referring to the method of construction. way: From Old English weg (road, path, course of travel), of Proto-Germanic origin. It denotes a path for traveling.