chaussee

thumb|The chaussee over the Saint Gotthard Pass|Sankt Gotthard was built in 1827–1830 Chaussee is an historic term used in German-speaking countries for early, metalled, rural highways, designed by road engineers, as opposed to the hitherto, traditional, unpaved country roads. The term is no longer used in modern road construction in Western Europe, but survives in road names and is used by historians. In Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet states it remains a generic term for a common paved highway outside of built-up areas, but they may transition into prospekts within towns and cities.

== Origin of the word and usage == The German word was borrowed from the French by the German construction industry in the 18th century. The French word, in turn, went back to the Gallo-Romanic and meant a road surfaced with firmly compacted crushed rock bound with lime. Contemporary German translations of the word were ('road embankment') and ('high way') and even the roughly similar English word, highway. Around 1790, Adelung complained that "several new authors have proposed German names" but these expressions "do not capture the concept either, and may be used for every other type of artificial way []". The word ('artificial road') then established itself but, in the main, the French word entered the German language as a loanword.