Royal Road

Meanings

1. The longest road in the ancient system of trade routes and roads developed in Achaemenid Persia, which connected the capitals Sardis (in Asia Minor) to Susa (in Mesopotamia) and featured post-stations with service facilities.

1. An easy or straightforward procedure for achieving a goal; a procedure that requires little effort.
2. A chord progression, IVᴹ⁷–V⁷–iii⁷–vi, common in Japanese pop music.

Etymology

In reference to Euclid, who is said to have told a king that there was no royal road to geometry. In the musical sense, a calque of Japanese 王道進行, itself deriving from a calque of sense 1.