pilgrimage n.

c. 1200, pilegrim, "a person traveling to a holy place (as a penance or to discharge some vow or religious obligation, or seeking some miracle or spiritual benefit)," also "a traveler" generally, "a wayfarer," from Old French pelerin, peregrin "pilgrim, crusader; foreigner, stranger" (11c., Modern French pèlerin), from Late Latin pelegrinus, a dissimilation of Latin peregrinus "foreigner, stranger, foreign resident" (source of Italian pellegrino, Spanish peregrino, German Pilger), from peregre (adv.) "from abroad," from per- "beyond" + agri, locative case of ager "country, land" (from PIE root *agro- "field").

The change of the first -r- to -l- in most Romance languages is by dissimilation; the -m appears to be a Germanic modification. Pilgrim Fathers "English Separatists who crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower and founded Plymouth colony in Massachusetts in 1620" is attested by 1799. They sometimes wrote of themselves as Pilgrims from c. 1630, in reference to Hebrews xi.13. Pilgrim in U.S. Western slang for "an original settler" is by 1841, later "a newcomer, 'tenderfoot,'" perhaps originally in reference to the Mormon migrations.

word-forming element in nouns of act, process, function, condition, from Old French and French -age, from Late Latin -aticum "belonging to, related to," originally neuter adjectival suffix, from PIE *-at- (source of Latin -atus, past participle suffix of verbs of the first conjugation) + *-(i)ko-, secondary suffix forming adjectives (see -ic).