Paving

How to spell paving

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce paving

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does paving mean?

1. nounThe hard surface or slabs used to cover a path, road, or yard.
2. verbLaying a hard surface over an area of ground.

Paving in a sentence

• noun

  The old paving outside the shop had cracked over the winter.

• verb

  The council is paving the high street with new bricks.

• noun

  They ordered new stone paving for the back garden.

• verb

  The crew spent all week paving the car park.

Where does paving come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb pavire, which literally meant 'to beat down' or 'to ram firm', describing how early road builders compacted earth and stones into a solid surface. From pavire came the Latin pavimentum, a beaten or trodden floor, and the sense travelled into Old French as paver, 'to lay a hard surface'. English took up the verb 'pave' in the 1300s, and the form 'paving' grew naturally from it to name both the act of laying a surface and the material laid. The original idea of beating the ground firm survives in the modern image of solid slabs underfoot, and the same root also gives us 'pavement'. The spelling is straightforward once you remember it is simply 'pave' with the final 'e' dropped before '-ing'.

How the word is built

• pav- (from Latin pavire: to beat or ram firm)
• -ing (noun/verb suffix)