Do Motorcyclists Ride a ‘Route’ or a ‘Route’?

Routes are an integral part of the motorcycling lifestyle, whether you’re roaring down Route 66 or getting rerouted due to roadwork. But which way do you say that word—”route” or “route?”

There are two prevalent ways to pronounce this most important of words; one that sounds like “root” (rhyming with “boot”) and one that sounds like “rout” (rhyming with “out”). Motorcyclists in some places use one pronunciation exclusively, while in others, either goes.

But why does this difference exist? And is one of the pronunciations more correct than the other?

Let us not rout in our efforts to root through etymological history to discover the route to the correct pronunciation of route.

Where Does the Word ‘Route’ Come From?

First, we need to understand how the word route got into English. Like so many other words in our language, its origins lie in Latin.