cartage

Etymology

It is formed from English cart + -age, from the noun or the verb cart.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The noun is from Old Norse kartr, or a similar Scandinavian word, according to Etymonline, which compares Old English cræt (“cart, wagon, chariot”);^[4] the OED leaves open whether it is inherited or borrowed from early Scandinavian.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Transport by cart, and the charge for it: a Faversham account of 1305 has the abbreviated form in a Latin sentence, a charge of six pence for carting something as far as Boclande.^[5] Etymonline dates the word to about 1300,^[4] and the Random House text to 1275–1325.^[6] The first English context in both the OED and the Middle English Dictionary is of 1428: “For chalke and stoon and cartage”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The word has meant both the act of carrying and the price of it from the start.^[5][4][2] The Middle English Dictionary also records it for the means of transport itself, carts, in the Coventry Leet Book.^[5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged now extends it to trucks, usually within a city.^[3]

Timeline

• 1305 – carrying by cart; also the charge for it.^[5] Etymonline dates both to about 1300, and the OED's first quotation is of 1428.^[4][2]
• before 1525 – the means of transport, carts.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of hauling goods by cart or truck, usually within a city: The firm paid for the cartage of the bricks to the site.^[3][7][2]
2. The fee charged for such hauling.^[3][7][2]

Related words

• cart
• cartridge

Usage notes

In Chaucer and Gower Cartage is the spelling of the place name Carthage.^[8] The 1989 edition of the OED also lists cartage as an obsolete form of cartridge.^[9]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
9. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press