Forms: α. 6 traffigo, -ygo. β. 6 trafycke, (Sc. trafek, -eque, -eck); 6–7 trafick, -icke, 7–9 trafic. γ. 6 traffyque, -yk(ke, -icc, (Sc. traffeck, treffik, trefique), 6–7 trafficke, -ike; 6–8 trafficque, -ique, (Sc. traffect), traffick, 6– traffic. [In use soon after 1500, in various forms, cognate with the 15–16th c. F. trafique (1441 in Godef.), trafficque (fem.), mod.F. trafic (m.) (Amyot, 1559–74); Prov. trafec, trafey; Sp. tráfico, in 16th c. tráfago; Pg. tráfego, tráfico; It. tráffico, also, in 15–16th c. trafico (Florio), Venetian (c. 1500) traffigo. The earliest Eng. forms are traffykke and traffigo (the latter as an alien word); the ordinary forms from 1549 to c. 1680, trafficque, -ique, -icke, -ike, less usually traf-, were from the French of the same period; traffick, rare before 1600, became frequent in the 17th c. and in the form traffic the prevalent one in the 18th c. Some curious Sc. forms occur in the 16th c. The F. traf(f)ic was ad. It. traffico, which occurs in Pisan documents as early as 1323 (Bonaini, Statuti inediti della citta di Pisa dal XII al XIV secolo (1847), III. 457). OF. had also trafit, pl. -itz (1440 in Godef., Compl.). The sb. appears to have been the noun of action from the verb, It. trafficare, Sp. trafagar, Cat. trafegar to TRAFFIC, the ultimate source and etymology of which present difficulties: see Note below.]
1. The transportation of merchandise for the purpose of trade; hence, trade between distant or distinct communities; commerce.
1506. Guylforde, Pilgr. (Camden), 61. We founde also at Candy ij. other galyes, Venysyans, ladynge maluesyes, called the galeys of Traffygo. Ibid. We made sayle ayen, and so dyde the other .ij. galeys of Traffigo also in our company.
1549. Thomas, Hist. Italie, A j b. How commodious the countrey is … to the trafficque of them that liue by merchaundise.
1568. Grafton, Chron., I. 129. That passage and traffique of Marchaunts was forboden.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VI. xi. 9. Merchants … wount To skim those coastes for bondmen there to buy, And by such trafficke after gaines to hunt.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 38. A citie … to quhilke the frenche men and Spaniȝeards oft because of thair treffik sailed ouir.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, III. xix. 180. The greatest part of the habitation of the coast entertaines all the traffike of Spaine by sea.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 43. Vessels of Traffique and Warre.
1651. Howell, Venice, 83. That the Venetians shold have free and safe trafic into the Pontick Seas.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. 296. It was not the Way to or from any Part of the World, where the English had any Traffick.
1860. Motley, Netherl. (1868), I. i. 7. Cadiz,… where the ancient and modern systems of traffic were blending like the mingling of the two oceans.
† b. (with pl.) A trading voyage or expedition.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. IV., 241. Thether was one of their common trafficques and ventes of all their Merchaundice.
1598. Hakluyt (title), The Principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiqves and Discoueries of the English Nation.
2. In wider sense: The buying and selling or exchange of goods for profit; bargaining; trade.
1568. Grafton, Chron., I. 4. The honest and simple doings that before tyme had bene vsed … in their exchaunges and traffiques.
1604. R. Cawdrey, Table Alph., Traffique, bargayning.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. iii. 210. The maner of the Indians trafficke … was to exchange, and give things for things.
1697. Evelyn, Numism., i. 3. Antient Moneys … first used in Trafick.
1727. W. Mather, Yng. Man’s Comp., 396. Traffick then is the Bartering, Bargaining, or Exchanging of one Man with another.
1786. Burke, W. Hastings, Wks. 1813, XII. 202. Engaged in a low, clandestine traffick, prohibited by the laws of the Country.
1844. Wilson, Brit. India, III. 128. After a brief interval, Prome again became the seat of industry and traffic.
b. With a and pl.
1578. T. Ellis, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1600), III. 40. We did coniecture, that they had either Artificers amongst them, or els a traffike with some other nation.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, V. xxx. 426. Those which made it a trafficke to buy and sell slaves.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxxii[i]. She … had now, under pretence of a trifling traffic, resumed predatory habits.
c. fig.
1905. Killingworth, in Lett. Rich. III. & Hen. VII. (Rolls), II. App. D. 381. As for K[ing] H[enry’s] traffykkes they knewe theym wele ynough and better than ye did.
1570. Buchanan, Chamæleon, Wks. (1892), 46. The ouersey trafficque of mariage growing cauld.
1633. Bp. Hall, Occas. Medit. (1851), 139. Surely this very traffic of faculties is that, whereby we live;… one man lends a brain; another an arm: one, a tongue; another, a hand.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 227. The bees have common cities of their own,… beneath one law they live, And with one common stock their traffic drive.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, xli. I am stout enough to exchange buffets with any who will challenge me to such a traffic.
d. With sinister or evil connotation: Dealing or bargaining in something which should not be made the subject of trade.
1663. Bp. Patrick, Parab. Pilgr., xxi. (1687), 220. Their courtesies are meer traffique, and they always expect to gain more than they give.
1702. Eng. Theophrast., 105. They make a Traffick of Honour, and pay for it with the wind of fair Words.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 60. In this political traffick the leaders will be obliged to bow to the ignorance of their followers.
1818. Cobbett, Pol. Reg., XXXIII. 686. It is notorious, that seats in the House of Commons are an article of traffic.
1880. Mrs. Forrester, Roy & V., I. 19. You make the most shameless traffic and barter of yourselves and each other.
1903. Westm. Gaz., 31 Dec., 2/3. Fruits of ‘the traffic’ occupy a prominent place in to-day’s Metropolitan police-court reports.
Mod. The white slave traffic; a traffic in souls and bodies.
3. fig. Intercourse, communication; dealings, business. Now rare.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. IV., 240. The quotidiane entercourse, trafficke and commutacion, which no smal season had ben practised, frequented, & excercised.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 339 b. That secreat trafficke, that thou haste with infidels.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., Prol. 12. The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love … Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage.
a. 1628. F. Grevil, Lett. to Hon. Lady, v. Wks. 1870, IV. 285. Shee there vseth the traffique of wit.
1633. T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., I. xv. (1821), 173. The President … returned him no Answer…, utterly refusing any further traffique with him.
1727. De Foe, Syst. Magic, I. iii. (1840), 62. Perhaps they were not hardened enough at first for the carrying on such a traffick [intercourse with Satan].
1825. Jamieson, Traffeck, intercourse, familiarity.
1893. Stevenson, Catriona, xxviii. Our traffic is settled.
† 4. transf. Goods or merchandise in which trade is done; saleable commodities. Also pl. (quot. 1604) in same sense. Obs.
1555. Eden, Decades, 157. They bowght them by exchaunge of golde and other of their trafycke.
1560. in Marsden, Sel. Pl. Crt. Admir. (Selden), II. 119. In which shipps there be any merchaundizes or traffick apperteining to the ennemies.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. xxii. 271. The Cacao … is so much esteemed amongest the Indians (yea and among the Spaniards) that it is one of the richest and the greatest traffickes of new Spaine.
c. 1710. Celia Fiennes, Diary (1888), 36. A Considerable ffaire is kept…, ye Traffique mostly hopps.
1716. Gay, Trivia, II. 10. You’ll see a draggled damsel, here and there From Billingsgate her fishy traffic bear.
1778. Bp. Lowth, Transl. Isaiah, xxiii. 18. Her traffic and her gain, shall be holy to Jehovah: It shall not be treasured, nor shall it be kept in store.
† b. Baggage. Obs. rare.
1538. Elyot, Impedimenta, is the caryage and trafyke, that goth with the hooste.
† c. A prostitute. Cf. TRADER 1 b. Obs. rare.
1591. Greene, Disc. Coosnage (1592), 15. These trafickes, these common truls I meane, walke abroad.
d. Worthless stuff, rubbish, trash; also, rascally people; rabble. dial.
1828. Craven Gloss., Traffick, lumber, trash. ‘There wor a deal of oud traffick to sell.’… Rabble, low, rascally people, the canaille.
1869. Lonsdale Gloss., Traffic, (1) lumber, rubbish. (2) Rabble, low, rascally people.
5. The passing to and fro of persons, or of vehicles or vessels, along a road, railway, canal, or other route of transport.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Traffic,… passing and repassing on a high road. Ex. ‘There is a great deal of traffic on this road.’
1832. Ht. Martineau, Weal & Woe, ix. He sauntered along the pier, around which there was no busy traffic.
1886. C. E. Pascoe, London of To-day, xxvi. (ed. 3), 239. The traffic of omnibuses, cabs, carriages, and carts at this point is greater and more confusing than in any other part of London.
1894. Sala, London up to Date, 73. We have long since agreed to call street movement ‘traffic.’
b. The amount of business done by a railway, etc., in the transport of passengers and goods; the account of or revenue from this.
1858. [implied in traffic-return: see 6].
1883. Pall Mall G., 30 Nov., 5/2. It is obviously advisable that all the railways should adopt the same course, otherwise comparisons of traffic will become even more misleading than they are now. Ibid. (1885), 21 Nov., 5/2. Traffics are still decreasing, and this fact is all the more discouraging from the fact that the comparison is with decreased traffics.
1905. Westm. Gaz., 28 Sept., 9/1. Satisfaction is again expressed with this week’s batch of Home Railway traffics.
c. A railway traffic-rate (RATE sb.1 6 b).
1899. Daily News, 14 March, 9/1. The Grand Trunk Railway unconditionally withdrew the local traffics of January 6th, and agreed for the present to revert to former rates.
6. attrib. and Comb., as, in sense 2, traffic fellow, instinct; in 5, traffic block (BLOCK sb. 19 a), board (BOARD sb. 8 b), -entrance, -privilege, -rate, return (RETURN sb. 9 c), -road, staff, value; instrumental, objective, and obj. genitive, as traffic-manager; traffic-choked, -congested, -furrowed, -laden, -regulating, -thronged adjs.; traffic density, the number of passengers and of tons of freight carried over any section of a railway in a given period (Webster, 1911); traffic mile: see quot.; traffic-taker, a railway official whose business is to compile traffic returns.
1904. Daily Chron., 17 Feb., 7/2. *Traffic blocks are almost unknown.
1905. Westm. Gaz., 18 July, 8/2. The authority which the Commission recommend to be established is a *Traffic Board.
1886. Pall Mall G., 19 Aug., 3/2. The *traffic-choked streets.
1886. T. Hardy, Mayor Casterbr., ix. They … entered … by the back way or *traffic-entrance.
1590. Greene, Royal Exchange, Ded. Wks. (Grosart), VII. 223. Merchaunts wyth theyr freendes, and *traffique fellowes.
1898. G. Meredith, Odes Fr. Hist., 46. Their *traffic instincts hooded their live wits To issues.
1926. Modesto News-Herald, 8 Aug., 13/5. The Bay Shore Highway through South San Francisco, a less *traffic-harried route.
1871. Howells, Wedd. Journ. (1892), 254. The stream athwart which the ferries sped their swift *traffic-laden shuttles.
1862. Helps, Organiz. Daily Life, 30. A skilful *traffic-manager has been suffered to be too despotic in matters of traffic.
1911. Webster (citing Hadley), *Traffic mile is a term designed to furnish an excuse for the erroneous practice of adding together two things (ton miles and passenger miles) which, being of different kinds, cannot properly be added.
1901. Academy, 22 June, 540/1. One sight amazes him … the effect produced when the *traffic-regulating policeman raises his hand.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Traffic-return, a periodical statement of the receipts for goods and passengers on a railway line.
1912. Times, 19 Dec., 16/5. Canadian Pacific Railway shares opened above parity on the satisfactory traffic return.
Hence Trafficful a., nonce-wd., fully occupied with traffic; Traffickery, nonce-wd. [-ERY], underhand dealing, intrigue; Trafficless a., devoid of traffic.
a. 1628. F. Grevil, Sidney, ix. (1652), 107. Her *traffiquefull, and navigable river.
c. 1810. Coleridge, in Lit. Rem. (1838), III. 387. This indiscreet *traffickery with Romish wares.
1873. Kansas City Times, 28 Jan., 1/2. Steamboat stock has gone down to nothing in the market, and our towns along the river are dull, trafficless and complaining.
1892. Black & White, Jan., 134/2. Stilled and trafficless streets.
[Note. It is clear that the verb and sb. arose in the commerce of the Mediterranean, and in the language of one of the nations by or with whom this was carried on. The earliest uses yet found are trafficare and traffico in the Pisan Breve dell’ ordine del mare, cited above, which show both vb. and sb. in full established use in 1325. Etymologists are generally agreed in regarding the word as Romanic, and in seeing in the first element tra the regular It. repr. of L. trans across. Italian scholars also see in -ficare the derivative form of L. facĕre to do, make; transficare would thus be parallel to transigĕre to transact, or engage in transactions. But there are difficulties: see Diez, traffico, Körting, transvicare, etc. Some have suggested for the word an origin in Arabic, referring it to the verb taraffaqa, which sometimes means ‘to seek profit.’]
