Plural of fairway; either the mowed grass between tee and green on a golf course, or a navigable water channel for ships.
From 'fair' (clear, unobstructed) plus 'way' (from Old English 'weg'), a compound literally meaning 'a fair or clear passage,' used in both maritime and golf contexts.
Golf and nautical terminology both use 'fairway' to mean a clear passage, showing how the same metaphor applied to both sports—golfers named their course channels after the shipping lanes that inspired the term centuries earlier.
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