chariot

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chariot,^[2] borrowed from Old French chariot (“wagon”),^[3][4][5][6] an augmentative of char (“cart, wheeled vehicle”);^{[3][4][7][6][8]} Dictionary.com takes the ending as a diminutive suffix instead.^[9] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from 1307–08 for a four-wheeled cart.^[10] The Old French noun comes from Latin carrus, also carrum,^{[3][11][12][13]} which is of Celtic origin,^[11] from Gaulish karros,^[4] and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kers- (“to run”).^[4][11] The OED notes that since the 17th century chariot has also taken the place of charet, the two being confused in English, though in French a chariot was generally four-wheeled and a charrette two-wheeled.^[3] Johnson derived the word from Welsh.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Any vehicle: 1358, according to Barnhart.^[5][15] The OED's first record, about 1374 in Chaucer's translation of Boethius, is for a stately vehicle carrying people.^[3] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English a chariot was any wheeled vehicle: a cart or wagon for goods (from about 1380 to 1849)^[3][16] or a stately carriage for people, the sense that became chiefly poetic.^[3][12] The sense of a two-wheeled vehicle of ancient warfare, now the usual one, is recorded only from 1581.^[3][5] In the 18th century the name was given to a light four-wheeled carriage with only back seats.^[3][16][12] Johnson (1755) defined it first as a carriage of pleasure or state.^[14] Later technical uses include parts of watches (1884), of a printing telegraph (1876) and of stage machinery (1902),^[3] and in slang a chariot has been an omnibus (1843) and, in American use, a subway car or bus (1935).^[17] The verb, to ride or carry in a chariot, followed in the 16th and 17th centuries.^[3][16][12]

Timeline

• 1358 – any vehicle.^[5]
• c. 1374 – a stately vehicle for people.^[3]
• c. 1380 – a cart or wagon (obsolete by 1849).^[3]
• 1550 – verb, to carry in a chariot, by Merriam-Webster's dating.^[16] The OED's first record of the transitive verb is from before 1659.^[3]
• 1581 – a vehicle of ancient warfare.^[3][5]
• 1628 – verb, to drive or ride in a chariot.^[3]
• 1661 – a light four-wheeled carriage.^[3]
• 1843 – slang, an omnibus.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A light two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle used in ancient times in war, races and processions: The archer fought from a chariot drawn by two horses.^[8][16][9]
2. A light four-wheeled carriage with back seats only, used for pleasure or ceremony.^[8][16][3]
3. (poetic) Any stately or triumphal vehicle.^[8][3][16]
4. (obsolete, 1380–1849) A cart or wagon for goods.^[3][16][12]

Verb

1. To carry or convey in a chariot, or as if in one.^[16][3][9]
2. To drive or ride in a chariot.^[16][3]

Word family

• chariotlike
• unchariot

Related words

• charrette
• charioteer
• car
• career
• cargo
• charge
• carry

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com