Sense file
How the sense moved
The archive follows the dated record first, then reads the social or rhetorical pressure that hardened, softened, narrowed, or reversed the word.
Older meaning
A gate, gateway, or monumental entrance.
Modern meaning
A website or interface entry point into a system or service.
Research lens
A prestige-heavy entrance word that makes software systems feel architectural, gated, and administratively ordered.
Meaning trail
Root
gate
The word begins with passage and threshold.
Older sense
architectural entrance
The gate became formal and ceremonial.
Now
digital entry point
Networks inherited the threshold metaphor.