The Etymology of Releet ‘Road Junction’

Briggs asserts that In 1878, Skeat published a note on what he called an Essex word releet, arguing that it was a survival of an Old English (OE) genitival construction such as aet thaea wega gelaete 'at the meeting of the ways'. Skeat claimed that 'the prefix re- is due to the fact that the genitive plural of adjectives and numerals once ended in -ra'. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) under releet, n. follows Skeat closely in stating the etymology as 'apparently < -releet in threereleet, foureleet, by metanalysis; the latter representing respectively the reflexes of the Old English genitive phrases preora gelaete, literally "junction of three (ways)" and feowera gelaete, lit. 'junction of four (ways)', short for preora wega gelaete and feowera wega gelaete'.