means A track or route worn or laid out for walking, or more figuratively the course one takes toward a goal.

from From Old English 'pæth,' a word shared across the West Germanic family — compare Dutch 'pad' and German 'Pfad.' Its deeper roots are murky; some scholars suspect an early borrowing into Germanic, possibly from an Iranian language related to Avestan 'paθ-' (way), though this is debated and far from certain. What's clear is that the word has meant 'a way walked by feet' for as long as English has been English.