Other forms: pavements
In Britain the pavement is the raised strip beside the road where people walk. Kerb on one side, shop fronts on the other, and a cyclist on it who ought to be on the road.
In America that strip is the sidewalk, and pavement means the hard surface of the road itself, so an American saying the car left the pavement means it went off the tarmac. The same sentence therefore splits in two across the Atlantic, and it pays to know which reader you have. British extras come with it: paving stones or paving slabs are the pieces it is made of, and a pavement cafe puts its tables out on it in June. To pound the pavement is to walk the streets for hours, looking for work or knocking on doors. The verb behind it is pave, which also gives the figure of speech about a decision that paves the way for the next one.
1nounpavementIn British use, the raised path at the side of a road, for people on foot.
“Cars were parked half on the pavement, so we walked in the road.”
synonyms: sidewalk, footpath
2nounhardIn American use, the hard surface of a road.
“The bike skidded and he hit the pavement hard.”
pavement is a path for people on foot.
Also accepted in games: sidewalk
Pavement goes back to Latin pavimentum, a paved floor, from pavio, to beat, ram or tread down, because a floor was made by pounding the ground flat. Anglo-Norman and Middle French carried it across, and Middle English first said pament. The beating is still in the meaning: a pavement is ground made hard on purpose.
Latin
pavīmentum — paved surface or floor
Middle French
pavement
Anglo-Norman
pavement
Middle English
pament
English, today
pavement
Built from
From Middle English pament, from Anglo-Norman pavement and reinforced by Middle French pavement; both from Latin pavīmentum (“paved surface or floor”), from paviō (“to beat, to ram, to tread down”). Morphologically pave + -ment.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA