Commute

Seeing this article about the daily commute in today's Telegraph reminded me that the English word 'commute' often doesn't have a direct one-word equivalent in other languages. The online wordreference.com multi-language dictionary needs a full sentence to explain it in French: to ~ between Oxford and London faire le trajet entre Oxford et Londres tous les jours (lit, to make the journey between Oxford and London every day); she ~s to Glasgow elle se rend à Glasgow tous les jours; there is a similar rendering in Italian: ~ between Oxford and London fare il pendolare tra Oxford e Londra; she ~s to Glasgow va a lavorare a Glasgow (tutti i giorni). There is also a long explanation in Spanish: commute - (verbo intransitivo) viajar todos los días (entre el lugar de residencia y el de trabajo) and Russian: commute v.i. (to work) ездить (indet.) каждый день на значительное расстояние на работу (lit: to travel a considerable distance every day to work). German, however, has the one-word verb pendeln.

 

Commute meaning 'to exchange' or 'to substitute' dates back to the 17th century. By the late 18th century it meant "To change (one kind of payment) into or for another; esp. to substitute a single payment for a number of payments" (OED). It became associated with travelling to work a century later. A commuter was originally someone who bought a 'commutation ticket'. That was originally a season ticket sold on US trains (several daily fares being 'commuted' to a single payment).

Comments

[John]

Here is the US, the most common usages are 1) to go back and forth to work and 2) to reduce or set aside a convicted criminal's sentence.

Then there is, at least in the East, "commuter rail" which is a rail extension of a city's subway system usually operated by the subway entity itself, not by a "rail/train company"

[Virtual Linguist]

Thanks, John. I think the situation here is the same as in your first paragraph.

[SEO Translator]

I assume the Spanish explanation is jsut that - an explanation, as the word "commute" does not exist in Spanish.

However, the word "conmutar" DOES exist in Spanish (check it out at the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (RAE) at http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=conmutar).

While not very widely used in the sense that you mention, it IS indeed sometimes used in that sense, specially given that the 6th meaning provide by the RAE is "Change the destination of a signal or electric current". Applying it to people is therefore not much of a jump, even though the RAE has not accepted it (yet) as part of the common word meaning...

[Virtual Linguist]

Thanks for that information. The dictionary I was referring to is more basic than yours, I think. Thanks for reading and commenting.