STREET:

Noun: 1a. abbr. St. A public way or thoroughfare in a city or town, usually with a sidewalk or sidewalks. b. Such a public way considered apart from the sidewalks: Don't play in the street. c. A public way or road along with the houses or buildings abutting it: lives on a quiet street. 2. The people living, working, or habitually gathering in or along a street: The whole street protested the new parking regulations. 3. Street A district, such as Wall Street in New York City, that is identified with a specific profession. Often used with the. 4. The streets of a city viewed as the scene of crime, poverty, or dereliction.

Etymology:: Middle English strete, from Old English straet, stret, from Late Latin strata, paved road, from Latin, feminine past participle of sternere, to stretch, extend, pave. See ster-2 in Appendix I.

Appendix I: Indo-European Roots: ster-2 - To spread. Derivatives include destroy, industry, straw, street, and stratagem.
IV. Basic forms *ster-, *ster -. 1. Nasalized form *ster-n-e . estray, stratus, stray, street; consternate, prostrate, substratum, from Latin sternere (past participle stratus from zero-grade *stre-to-), to stretch, extend.

Continued from yesterday:

In original usage, a "road" was simply fit for riding ("road" is cognate with "ride", as in ships riding at anchor in roads). ‘Street’ was applied to roads that had been prepared to ease travel in some way. Some Roman roads have the word ‘street’ in their names (e.g. Watling Street), stemming from the latin ‘strata’, given before the usage changed).

However modern usage no longer follows this custom, and it is only important since place names often hold the earlier usage in them. It is worth noting however that today, in the UK at least, while a ‘street’ will usually be found in a built up area, ‘roads’ may be found anywhere and when outside built up areas often take the name of a town. For example, in Sussex where I live, there are many Lewes Roads each of which runs from somewhere to, or towards, Lewes.

The major Roman roads were viae publicae (public roads), funded by the state. Of secondary importance were viae militares (military roads), built by the army, who put up the capex; these became public roads; the actus (local roads), come next; and finally there were privatae (private roads), built and maintained by the owners

By Roman law the roads were open to everyone, but maintenance was a local responsibility. This worked only so long as there was a strong central authority to enforce it. As the Empire collapsed around 5th century AD, national road systems disappeared, although they took several centuries to vanish completely across Europe.

During the 17th century France built about 24,000 km of main roads using forced labour and in Britain, through a franchising system, turnpike companies starting road building and by the middle of the 19th century were maintaining 32,000 km of roads.

To be continued...