Commute
Origin
Middle English, from Latin commutare to change, exchange, from com- + mutare to change
Definitions
transitive verb
- 1a : change, alter
- b : to give in exchange for another : exchange
- 2: to convert (as a payment) into another form
- 3: to change (a penalty) to another less severe <commute a death sentence to life in prison>
- 4: commutate
intransitive verb
- 5: make up, compensate
- 6: to pay in gross
- 7: to travel back and forth regularly (as between a suburb and a city)
- 8: to yield the same mathematical result regardless of order —used of two elements undergoing an operation or of two operations on elements
Description
Commuting is regular travel between one's place of residence and place of work or full-time study. It sometimes refers to any regular or often repeated traveling between locations when not work related.
The word commuter derives from early days of rail travel in US cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago, where, in the 1840s, the railways engendered suburbs from which travellers paying a reduced or 'commuted' fare into the city. Later, the back formations "commute" and "commuter" were coined therefrom. Commuted tickets would usually allow the traveller to repeat the same journey as often as they liked during the period of validity: Normally, the longer the period the cheaper the cost per day.
Before the 19th century, most workers lived less than an hour's walk from their work. Today, many people travel daily to work a long way from their own towns, cities, and villages, especially in industrialised societies. Depending on factors such as the high cost of housing in city centres, lack of public transit, and traffic congestion, modes of travel may include automobiles, motorcycles, trains, aircraft, buses, and bicycles.[1]
