A Voyage Was Once the Food You Took With You
A voyage is a long journey, usually by sea. The Latin original meant provisions for a journey, not the journey itself.
A voyage is a long journey, usually by sea or through space. The Latin *viaticum* meant provisions for a journey — the money and food you packed, from *via*, a road. The word for what you carried became the word for the going itself. In Christian use *viaticum* kept the older sense entirely, meaning the last communion given to someone about to die.
- A long journey. *A voyage to the Pacific.*
- A sea passage. *The maiden voyage.*
- Verb, to travel. *They voyaged south.*
- Bon voyage — a farewell. *Bon voyage!*
- Voyager — a traveller. *An early voyager.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | voyage | A rough voyage. |
| Plural | voyages | Three voyages. |
| Verb | voyage | To voyage far. |
| Agent | voyager | A lone voyager. |
| Latin | via | A road. |
- The voyage took eleven weeks.Sea travel.
- The ship sank on her maiden voyage.First journey.
- A voyage of discovery.Fixed phrase, often figurative.
Journey words compared
- Voyage — long, usually by sea or space
- Journey — the general word, from French for a day's travel
- Trip — short, often for a specific purpose
- Expedition — organised, with a defined objective
- Passage — a crossing, especially by sea
Old French *veiage*, from Late Latin *viaticum*, provisions for a journey, from *via*, a road. English has used it since the 1300s.
Did voyage once mean supplies?
The Latin ancestor did. Viaticum meant the provisions taken for a journey, and the meaning shifted to the journey itself.
What is the difference between a voyage and a journey?
Journey is the general term. Voyage suggests distance and usually sea or space travel.