traffic [E16th] Borrowed from French traffique, or the Spanish or Italian equivalents, this originally referred to commercial transportation of merchandise or passengers. The sense ‘vehicles moving on a public highway’ dates from the early 19th century. The traffic warden first appeared in London in 1960. Traffic calming is a translation of German Verkehrsberuhigung and arrived on British roads in the late 1980s. See also jam. Nowadays trafficking implies dealing in something illegal, especially drugs, but in the mid 16th century to traffic was a neutral term meaning ‘to buy and sell, trade’. By the end of that century, though, it had started to take on negative connotations.