via [L18th] The Latin word via meant ‘way, road’. It survives in the names of major Roman roads, such as Via Appia. The Christian Church also uses it in terms such as the Via Dolorosa, the route Jesus is believed to have taken to crucifixion and meaning ‘the painful path’. A deviation [LME] is literally a turning away from the path as is behaviour that is devious [L16th]. Viaduct was formed from via in the early 19th century on the model of aqueduct (see duct). An envoy [M17th] is someone sent on their way, formed from French envoyé ‘sent’ from en voie ‘on the way’, from via, while obvious [L16th] comes from Latin ob viam ‘in the way’.