Etymologically
Log in

carry

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 18:46. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈkær.i/, US /ˈker.i/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English carien,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman carier (“to transport in a vehicle”), also Old North French carier,[4][2] a variant of Old French charier (modern charrier “to cart, drag”),[5][2] from Gallo-Romance *carrizāre,[2][4] from Latin carrus (“wagon”), carrum,[2][3] originally a two-wheeled Celtic war chariot,[4] from Gaulish karros,[4] the source of car.[2][3] The spelling with two r's was established by the early 1600s.[2] It is a doublet of charge.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To convey, originally by cart or wagon, then in any vehicle, by ship or on horseback: about 1320.[6] Barnhart's first example is from before 1338, in Mannyng's Chronicle of England.[2] To bear from place to place by bodily effort is from about 1340–70.[6]

Semantic evolution

From moving a load the word passed to many figurative uses.[6] The sense “bear up, support” is from the 1560s,[4] “to take by force, gain by effort” and “to conduct, manage” from the 1580s,[4] and “to win, bring to success” from the 1610s;[4] of elections it is American English from 1848.[4] To keep goods in stock is from 1848,[4] and to carry a number to the next column in arithmetic is another later sense.[7][4] The noun first meant a vehicle, a cart or barrow (1605, still Scottish and northern dialect),[6][8] and later the range of a gun or ball (1858).[6][3] A portage between rivers is American and Canadian from 1860,[6] and a carry in American football is from 1949.[4] Carrier is from before 1398.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1320 – to convey in a vehicle.[6]
  • c. 1340–70 – to bear by bodily effort.[6]
  • before 1398 – carrier.[2]
  • 1560s – to bear up, support.[4]
  • 1580s – to take by force; to manage.[4]
  • 1605 – noun, a vehicle.[6][2]
  • 1610s – to win, carry the day.[4]
  • 1848 – to win an election; to keep in stock.[4]
  • 1858 – noun, the range of a gun.[6]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To hold or support while moving; to bear.
  2. To take from one place to another; to transport or transmit.
  3. To have with one; to keep in stock: the shop carries spare parts.
  4. To support the weight of; to bear responsibility for.
  5. To win or secure, as a vote or an election: the motion was carried.
  6. To be pregnant with.
  7. To transfer a digit to the next column in addition.
  8. Of a sound or missile, to reach a distance: his voice carried.

Noun

  1. The range of a gun or of a thrown or struck ball.
  2. A portage between rivers.
  3. In American football, a run with the ball.

Word family

  • carriable
  • carryback
  • carryforward
  • miscarry
  • recarry
  • carry-out
  • carrier
  • carrycot

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press