pavement (n.)

mid-13c., "paved or tiled surface of ground," from Old French pavement "roadway, pathway; paving stone" (12c.) and directly from Latin pavimentum "hard floor, level surface beaten firm," from pavire "to beat, ram, tread down," from PIE root *pau- (2) "to cut, strike, stamp." From c. 1300 as "a paved roadway," gradually passing in modern times to the sense of "a sidewalk, paved footway on each side of a street." By 1878 as "material of which a pavement is made."