cart

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /kɑːt/, US /kɑːrt/^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Old Norse kartr or a similar Scandinavian word,^[2][3][4] replacing and partly continuing, by metathesis, Old English cræt, cart, wagon, chariot (before 800),^[2][5][3] and probably influenced by Anglo-Norman carete, a diminutive of car (see car).^[5][6] Both are cognate with Middle Dutch cratte, woven mat, basket, and related to cradle,^[2][3][4] so that the first cart may have had a wickerwork body.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A carriage of any kind, even a chariot: before 800, in the Old English form;^[7][8] a strong two-wheeled farm vehicle, 1297 in the OED, about 1200 as carte in the Ormulum.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

Many old allusions are to carts carrying offenders to the gallows, sometimes serving as the drop, or to the public exposure of wrongdoers tied to a cart's tail.^[3][7] A lighter sprung two-wheeled vehicle is from 1823.^[7] Put the cart before the horse is from the 1510s in those words,^[3][8] though the image goes back to the mid-14th century as putting the plough before the oxen.^[3] The verb, to carry in a cart, is from the late 14th century,^[3][2] and to carry laboriously (to cart one's bags about) is a later extension.^[9][10] Carter is recorded as a name from 1193 and cartage from 1305.^[2]

Timeline

• before 800 – cræt, a carriage.^[7]
• c. 1200 – carte, a cart.^[2]
• 1305 – cartage.^[2]
• c. 1387 – to cart (verb).^[2]
• 1510s – put the cart before the horse.^[3]
• 1823 – a light sprung cart.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A strong open vehicle, usually with two wheels, drawn by a horse and used for farm work or carrying goods.
2. A small wheeled vehicle pushed by hand, such as a shopping cart.
3. A light two-wheeled carriage.

Verb

1. To carry in a cart or truck.
2. To carry or take with effort or roughly: carted off to jail.

Word family

• cartable
• carter
• cartage
• cartwright
• cartload
• cartwheel
• go-cart
• oxcart

Related words

• car
• cradle
• tumbrel

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins