gurney

Etymology

It is apparently named after J. Theodore Gurney of Boston, Massachusetts, who patented a new design of horse-drawn cab in 1883, the “Gurney cab”;^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the OED cites a study by Tamony (1966).^[2] Merriam-Webster also takes the word as probably from the name,^[7][8] but Etymonline and Dictionary.com call it of unknown origin,^[9][10] and Etymonline mentions a possible link with the Gurney Ball Bearing Company of Jamestown, New York, which seems to have made bearings for cars.^[9] The surname itself is Norman, from Gournai-en-Brai in Normandy.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A two-wheeled horse-drawn cab, entered from the rear and with seats along its length, popular in America in the late 19th century: 1884, in the Hub.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the West of the United States the name passed to similar vehicles with a rear door, used as police wagons and emergency ambulances;^[2][3] Tamony recalled that San Francisco's hospital ambulances were called gurneys around 1912, probably after the rear-entrance Gurney cab.^[13] From there it came to mean a wheeled stretcher or trolley for carrying patients,^[2][3] a sense Merriam-Webster dates to 1939^[7] and the OED to 1956.^[2] Etymonline notes that the word was in use for a hospital cart by 1921, and that the earliest hospital uses refer to carts for food and laundry.^[9]

Timeline

• 1884 – a two-wheeled horse-drawn cab entered from the rear.^[2]
• 1921 – a hospital cart.^[9]
• 1939 – a police wagon or emergency ambulance (now obsolete).^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the stretcher sense to the same year.^[7]
• 1956 – a wheeled stretcher for patients.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stretcher on wheeled legs, used to move patients in a hospital or an ambulance.^{[14][7][2][3]}
2. (historical) A two-wheeled horse-drawn cab with a rear door and seats along the sides.^[2][3]
3. (obsolete) A similar vehicle used as a police wagon or ambulance.^[2][3][13]

Usage notes

Collins labels the word chiefly American,^[14] and Merriam-Webster marks it as Western.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
9. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Hanks, Patrick; Coates, Richard; McClure, Peter, eds. (2016), The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Reaney, P. H.; Wilson, R. M. (1991), A Dictionary of English Surnames, 3rd ed., London: Routledge
13. ^ a b Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins