via

via, viae is a first declension feminine noun. It runs the same range as English "way": the physical road first, then the route taken, then the abstract method or manner of doing something.

The bare ablative via, with no preposition, means "by way of", and that is precisely how the English preposition "via" got into the language. The great Roman roads carry it as a proper name, via Appia, via Sacra, via Flaminia, always with the road name as an adjective agreeing with it. Compare iter, which is the journey rather than the road it runs along, so iter facere is what you do and via is what you do it on. Descendants: Italian and Spanish via, French voie, and viaticum, provisions for a journey, which becomes French voyage.