path

Etymology 1

From Middle English path, peth, from Old English pæþ (“path, track”), from Proto-West Germanic *paþ, from Proto-Germanic *paþaz (“path”) (compare West Frisian paad, Dutch pad, German Pfad), Ancient Greek πατέω (patéō) / πάτος (pátos), from Iranian (compare Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬥𐬙𐬀 (panta, “way”), 𐬞𐬀𐬚𐬀 (paθa, genitive), Old Persian [script needed] (pathi-)), from Proto-Iranian *pántaHh, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *pántaHs (compare Sanskrit पन्था (panthā), पथ (patha)), from Proto-Indo-European *póntoh₁s, from *pent- (“path”) (compare English find). Doublet of panth.

noun

1. A trail for the use of, or worn by, pedestrians.
   I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. A course taken.
   the path of a meteor, of a caravan, or of a storm
3. (paganism) A Pagan tradition, for example witchcraft, Wicca, druidism, Heathenry.
4. A metaphorical course or route; progress.
   As I explored the possibility of a library science path, having previously been employed in libraries during my school career and afterwards, I decided that I needed to actually experience work in a library setting full time again […] 2002, Priscilla K. Shontz, Steven J. Oberg, Jump Start Your Career in Library and Information Science, page 21
5. A method or direction of proceeding.
   The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
6. (computing) A human-readable specification for a location within a hierarchical or tree-like structure, such as a file system or as part of a URL.
   Use the network path \\Marketing\Files to find the documents you need.
7. (graph theory) A sequence of vertices from one vertex to another using the arcs (edges). A path does not visit the same vertex more than once (unless it is a closed path, where only the first and the last vertex are the same).
8. (topology) A continuous map f from the unit interval I=[0,1] to a topological space X.
9. (rail transport) A slot available for allocation to a railway train over a given route in between other trains.
   "Permissive" working allows more than one train to be in a block section at one time but trains must be run at low speed in order to stop on sight behind the train in front. Such working is often authorised to allow freight trains to "bunch" together to await a path through a bottleneck instead of being strung out over several block sections, as would be necessary if absolute working were in force. 1962 October, “Talking of Trains: The collisions at Connington”, in Modern Railways, page 232
   ... while the planned hourly fast 'Connect' service from Middlesbrough to Newcastle has been postponed indefinitely due to problems in finding paths for it on the East Coast main line. 2019 October, James Abbott, “Esk Valley revival: December 2019 changes”, in Modern Railways, page 78
   Echoing McNaughton's comments in 2009, it adds: "The WCML has exhausted its available train paths and no extra services could be run without further significant investment to enhance current infrastructure or build a new line. May 6 2020, Philip Haigh, “Just one more stop on the long journey to HS2 fulfillment [sic]”, in Rail, page 65

verb

1. (transitive) To make a path in, or on (something), or for (someone).
   pathing young Henry's unadvised ways
2. (computing, intransitive) To navigate through a file system directory tree (to a desired file or folder).
   Next, you need to path to the location of the executable and run it from there.

Etymology 2

Shortening.

noun

1. (medicine, abbreviation) Pathology.