route

Etymology 1

From Middle English route, rute, borrowed from Old French route, rote (“road, way, path”) (compare modern French route), from Latin (via) rupta (“(road) opened by force”), from rumpere viam "to open up a path".

noun

1. A course or way which is traveled or passed.
   The route was used so much that it formed a rut.
   You need to find a route that you can take between these two obstacles.
   It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted. 2013-03, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, page 83
2. A regular itinerary of stops, or the path followed between these stops, such as for delivery or passenger transportation.
   We live near the bus route.
   Here is a map of our delivery routes.
3. A road or path; often specifically a highway.
   Follow Route 49 out of town.
4. (figurative) One of multiple methods or approaches to doing something.
   If such an option is to viable over time, it needs to be protected against competitors. Having patent protection is one route. […] Another route is to have a programmatic investment strategy […]. Rolex has taken this route […] 2010, Damien McLoughlin, David A. Aaker, Strategic Market Management: Global Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, pages 156–7
5. (historical) One of the major provinces of imperial China from the Later Jin to the Song, corresponding to the Tang and early Yuan circuits.
   The Chinese, ever since the first century of our era, have called the countries which we to-day name Kashgar and Sungaria, "routes." They referred them to their relative position on the two sides of the Tian-Shan, and called our Sungaria, Pe-lu, " northern route," and our Kashgar, Nan-lu, " southern route." The Turks gave other names to these countries; they called the northern route besh-balik, "the five cities," Pentapolis; the southern route was alti-shehr, " the six cities," Hexapolis. 1908, Henry Smith Williams, The Historians' History of the World
   Under the director were eight education promotion officials (quanxue yuan), each installed in a “route”(lu,corresponding to the policing ward). 2005, Huaiyin Li, Village Governance In North China: Huailu County, 1875-1936
   In the year Zhiyuan 8, 5th month, on xinwei day (around June, 1271), owing to the fact that the chieftains of the eight polities in Dali had submitted recently and were adhered to [China], the thirty-seven tribal regions under Dali were divided into three routes. 2008, Foon Ming Liew, Volker Grabowsky, & ʻArunrat Wichīankhīeo, Lan Na in Chinese historiography
   Chinese administrative "cities" were often the location of more than one yamen, each with its own territorial jurisdiction. For instance, Yangszhou was not only the seat of the Pacificiation Commission (xuanweisi) of Huaidonglu, but also the capital of the Yanzhou Route (lu) subordinated to the Pacification Commission. Morevover, it was the administrative seat of Jiangdu District, which was subordinated to the Yangzhou Route. 2012, Hans Ulrich Vogel, Marco Polo Was in China
6. (computing) A specific entry in a router that tells the router how to transmit the data it receives.
7. (horse racing) A race longer than one mile.

verb

1. (transitive) To direct or divert along a particular course.
   All incoming mail was routed through a single office.
2. (Internet) to connect two local area networks, thereby forming an internet.
3. (computing, transitive) To send (information) through a router.
   Google Glass has come under fire from privacy advocates because it can record video without subjects being aware of it, and that any video will be routed through Google's servers. 24 June 2014, “Google Glass go on sale in the UK for £1,000”, in The Guardian

Etymology 2

verb

1. Eye dialect spelling of root.