Here’s a little etymological quiz for the word arrive.

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With respect to the word arrive which of the following statements is the most etymologically appropriate?

This first one is from a Sherlock Holmes story by Arthur Conan Doyle

“While a horse was being put into a trap at the local inn, we snatched a hurried breakfast, and so we were all ready for business when we at last arrived at Yoxley Old Place.”

Next this one from Charles Dickens Great Expectations

“I so shaped out my walk as to arrive at the gate at my old time. When I had rung at the bell with an unsteady hand I turned my back upon the gate, while I tried to get my breath and keep the beating of my heart moderately quiet.”

Or finally this snippet from Mark Twain’s Following the Equator

“When a vessel arrived with spirits, they allowed nobody to buy but themselves, and they forced the owner to sell to them at a price named by themselves…”

Before I tell you the answer I’ll tell you that the word arrive has an etymology that specifically relates it to the mode of travel.

So Sherlock Holmes was travelling in a small horse drawn carriage; that’s what’s meant by a trap. In Great Expectations Pip tells us himself that he’d been walking while Mark Twain is describing the arrival of a ship.

The word arrive came to English from French.

Since England is on an island any French word had to arrive by ship and that’s appropriate for the word arrive.

Before being a French word arrive came from Latin and had been two words; ad ripa was Latin for “to shore.”

So originally arrival implied a voyage over water and so from the three examples I gave—all of which sound perfectly correct to our ears—it’s the Mark Twain extract that is most etymologically appropriate.