Английский Этимологический словарь - street

- O.E. stret (Mercian), strжt (W.Saxon), early W.Gmc. borrowing from L.L. strata, used elliptically for via strata "paved road," from fem. pp. of L. sternere "lay down, spread out, pave." Originally of Roman roads (Watling Street, Icknield Street, etc.), later in O.E. it acquired a dialectal sense of "straggling village." "In the Middle Ages, a road or way was merely a direction in which people rode or went, the name street being reserved for the made road." [Weekley] Used since late M.E. to mean "the people in the street." Street-walker "common prostitute" first recorded 1592. Street people is from 1967; street smarts is from 1972.