A route or pathway that goes behind something or avoids the main road; an alternate or less direct way.
From 'back' (Old English) plus 'way' (Old English 'weg'). A straightforward compound that has been used in English since at least the Middle Ages.
Before smartphones and GPS, knowing the backways through your town was genuine power—it let you avoid tolls, checkpoints, or crowds, which is why smugglers and rebels historically valued local knowledge of backways.
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