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Added 9 October 2026

traffic

/ˈtɹæfɪk/ noun

In Latin: transitus Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about traffic at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

The aggregation of things (pedestrians or vehicles) coming and going in a particular locality during a specified period of time.
Buying and selling; especially illicit trade.
The amount of activity over a communication system during a given period of time.
heavy traffic overloaded the trunk lines

verb

Deal illegally.
traffic drugs
Trade or deal a commodity.
They trafficked with us for gold

Origin

From Middle French trafique, traffique (“traffic”), from Italian traffico (“traffic”) from trafficare (“to carry on trade”). Potentially from Vulgar Latin *trānsfrīcāre (“to rub across”); Klein instead suggests the Italian has ultimate origin in Arabic تَفْرِيق (tafrīq, “distribution, dispersion”), reshaped to match the native prefix tra- (“trans-”). The adjectival sense is possibly influenced by Tagalog trapik and follows a general trend in Philippine English to construct a noun from an adjective.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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