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Etymology and origin of the English word tote

Dictionaries give tote separate etymologies: the verb meaning to carry, a short form of total, and a short form of totalizator.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

tote1 to carry

Confidence
Disputed
First attested
1677 Grievances of Gloucester County, Virginia

Etymology

The verb meaning to carry is of unknown origin.[2][5][1][6] It was first recorded in Virginia,[2][5] and the OED rejects the popular theory that it came from the slave communities of the American South and ultimately from Africa: the first record does not refer to slaves, the word was later well established in New England, and evidence for an Indigenous American source is also lacking.[2][5] The American Heritage Dictionary, by contrast, derives it probably from an English-based creole, comparing Gullah tot and Krio tot (“to carry”), of Bantu origin, and Kongo -tota (“to pick up”) and Swahili -tuta (“to pile up, carry”).[7] Barnhart also thinks a West African source possible, comparing Kimbundu tuta (“carry, load”),[8] and Partridge took it as apparently West African.[9] The Shorter Oxford and the Concise Oxford take it as probably of dialect origin,[3][10] and Weekley pointed to Middle French tauter (“to put a roller under a heavy thing to move it”), recorded by Cotgrave.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To carry as a load: 1677, in the spelling toat, in a list of grievances from Gloucester County, Virginia, about armed men ordered to carry rails.[2][8][12]

Semantic evolution

The spelling tote is first recorded in 1803, also in American English.[8] The word belonged to everyday American speech: Davy Crockett wrote in 1833 of carrying as much meat as he could tote,[12] and the Century Dictionary (1891) called it colloquial or provincial in the South, and used humorously in the North and West.[5] It also came to mean to carry something regularly as part of one's equipment,[2][3] as in pistol-toting.[1] A tote road, a rough road for hauling supplies, is recorded by 1857.[5] The noun, a load or burden, followed from the verb (1884 in Barnhart, about 1772 in Merriam-Webster),[8][1] and the tote bag, a large bag for carrying shopping, from 1900,[8][5] shortened to tote by 1959.[2] The American phrase to tote tales, to carry tales, is recorded from 1901.[2]

Timeline

  • 1677 – to carry as a load, spelled toat, in Virginia.[2][8]
  • 1803 – the spelling tote.[8]
  • 1857 – tote road, a road for hauling supplies.[5]
  • 1884 – noun, a load.[8]
  • 1900 – tote bag.[8][5]
  • 1901 – to tote tales, to carry tales.[2]
  • 1959 – tote, short for tote bag.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (informal) To carry or haul something, especially by hand or on one's back: She toted the groceries up three flights of stairs.[7][1][13]
  2. To carry regularly on one's person, as a weapon: hunters toting rifles.[7][1][2]

Noun

  1. A tote bag.[7][1][2]
  2. Something carried; a load or burden.[1][6][13]
  3. An act of carrying.[1][13]

Word family

  • totable
  • toter
  • tote bag
  • tote road

tote2 total, the whole lot

Confidence
Established
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1772 before 1772, Essays from the Batchelor
From
Old French total
Ultimate origin
Latin tōtus

Etymology

The noun meaning the whole is a clipping of total,[2][1][3][14] which is from Old French total, from Medieval Latin tōtālis (“entire”), from Latin tōtus (“all, the whole”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The total amount or number, mostly in the phrase the whole tote: before 1772, in Essays from the Batchelor.[2]

Semantic evolution

The word lived on mainly in dialect.[3][1] Wright's dialect dictionary recorded the whole tote across Scotland, Ireland and much of England, from Northumberland and Cumberland to Kent, Devon and Cornwall, with forms such as tot and twote, and in the West Country by the tote for work taken on as a whole, by piece-work.[15] From about 1870 tote was also a colloquial and dialect short form of total abstainer;[2][3] Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes an Australian example of 1885.[12] The verb to tote, usually tote up, to add up, is recorded from 1888 in Merriam-Webster;[1] Green dates it in Australia and New Zealand to the 1920s and quotes Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958).[12]

Timeline

  • before 1772 – the whole amount, in the whole tote.[2]
  • c. 1870 – a total abstainer.[2]
  • 1888 – verb, to add up.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (dialect, chiefly British) The whole amount or number; the total, usually in the whole tote.[1][3][15]
  2. (dialect, colloquial) A total abstainer.[3][2]

Verb

  1. (informal) To add up; to tot, usually with up: He toted up what he owed.[1][6][12]

tote3 totalizator

Confidence
Established
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1890 The Bulletin, Sydney

Etymology

The betting machine is a short form of totalizator,[1][12][3][16][9] which is formed from totalize and -ator, after French totalisateur.[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The totalizator: 1890, in the Sydney Bulletin, on its expected legalization in Victoria.[12] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1891.[1]

Semantic evolution

The short form began in Australia,[2][12] where it also came to mean a lottery;[2][3] Tote is now a trademark in Britain for the totalizator betting system.[13][6] The tote board, the board that shows the betting odds and payoffs, takes its name from it.[1]

Timeline

  • 1890 – the totalizator, in Australia.[12] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1891.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A totalizator, a machine that records the bets placed on each runner in a race and calculates the payouts; also, the betting system based on it.[1][3][13]
  2. (Australia and New Zealand) A lottery.[3][2]

Word family

  • tote board

Usage notes

A further tote, the handle of a carpenter's plane, is recorded from 1678 and is probably from toot in the sense "to stick out".[2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
  7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  10. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  15. ^ a b 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)
  16. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Tote.” Etymologically, 1 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/tote. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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