Etymologically
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lorry

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈlɒɹi/, /ˈlʌɹi/[1]
  • US: /ˈlɔɹi/[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[2][3][4] The OED calls it obscure and compares the dialect verb lurry (“to pull, drag”);[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster take the noun as probably from that verb,[5][6] and the American Heritage Dictionary, Barnhart, Collins and Klein give the link as possible.[7][8][9][10] Etymonline dates lurry to the 1570s, the OED to 1664, and the OED thinks the verb perhaps expressive, influenced by hurry, worry and lug.[5][2] Partridge calls lorry the Scots and northern variant of a Yorkshire and Lancashire lurry, a flat dray, from the verb, and so ultimately echoic.[11] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford suggest instead the personal name Laurie,[12][13] an idea Ayto reports as speculation.[14] Weekley thought it perhaps a metathesis of rolley or rulley, a coal-mining tram recorded somewhat earlier, or compared Norwegian lorje (“lighter”), earlier lodje, of Russian origin.[4][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A long flat wagon without sides, on four low wheels, also used on railways and tramways: 1838, in the Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal.[2][5][8] Ayto puts the first record in north-west England in the early 1830s, and notes that it was often used of railway wagons.[14]

Semantic evolution

Weekley calls it a 19th-century railway word, of the local kind that also gave bogie and trolley.[4] In the dialects of Scotland, northern England, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire a lorry or lurry was a flat dray or cart, and in Shropshire a board on four little wheels that workmen rode along the rails;[15] in mining it was a running bridge over the top of a pit (1883).[2][15] The modern sense, a large motor vehicle carrying goods by road, appears at the beginning of the 20th century;[14][8] the OED's first record is from 1911,[2][5] and the verb, to carry by lorry, from 1920.[2] In British English it is the usual word for what Americans and Canadians call a truck.[9][5] The humorous phrase off the back of a lorry hints that goods were dishonestly acquired.[9]

Timeline

  • 1838 – a long flat wagon without sides, also used on railways.[2][5][6]
  • 1883 – in mining, a running bridge over a pit.[2]
  • 1911 – a large motor vehicle for carrying goods by road.[2][5]
  • 1920 – verb, to carry by lorry.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly British) A large motor vehicle for carrying heavy loads by road, often with a flat platform; a truck: The road was closed after a lorry shed its load.[9][6][2]
  2. Any of various vehicles with a flat surface for loads, especially one running on rails.[9][6][2]
  3. A long, low, horse-drawn wagon without sides.[6][2]
  4. (mining) A running bridge over the mouth of a pit.[2][15]
  5. off the back of a lorry (British, informal): of goods, dishonestly acquired: He swore the cameras had not come off the back of a lorry.[9]

Verb

  1. To carry by lorry.[2][13]

Word family

  • articulated lorry

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 m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  15. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)