Etymology Dictionary

CARFAX,  a place where four ways meet.  (F.,—L.)   I enter this because of the well-known example of carfax at Oxford, which has puzzled many.   M.E. carfoukes, a place where four streets met; it occurs in this sense in the Romance ofo Partenay, ed. Skeat, l. 1819, where the French original has carrefourg.   The form carfax occurs in the Prompt. Parv. p. 62, col. 2, l. 1, as the Eng. of Lat. quadrivium.—O.F. carrefourgs, pl. of carrefourg; the latter being an incorrect form, as the sb. is essentially plural.—Lat. quatuor furcas, lit. four forks; according to the usual rule of deriving F. sbs. from the accusative case of the Latin.—Lat. quatuor, four; and furca, a fork.   See Four, and Fork.