trolley

Etymology

It began as a dialect word,^[2][3][4] probably formed from English troll + -y, from troll in the sense "to roll",^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]} with -y as a diminutive suffix.^[5] The OED marks the connection as uncertain and compares other dialect names for carts, lorry, rolley and rulley.^[11] Weekley likewise compares the obscure local origins of bogie and tram, as well as lorry.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A low cart of various local kinds, such as a costermonger's cart, or at Yarmouth a narrow cart or sledge made for the town's narrow alleys, the "rows": 1823, in E. Moor's Suffolk Words.^[11][6][12]

Semantic evolution

From 1858 the word was used for a low truck without sides, especially one with flanged wheels running on rails, in a factory or on a railway.^[11][7] In American English it was applied from 1882 to the grooved pulley that runs along an overhead electric wire and takes current from it to a tramcar,^[11] a sense Etymonline dates to 1888 and Barnhart to 1890.^[6][7] The trolley car (1889) driven by such a device was then itself called a trolley (1891).^[6][11][7] The slang phrase off one's trolley, crazy, appears in 1896 in G. Ade's Artie.^[11] From 1937 a trolley was also a small table or stand on wheels for serving food or carrying luggage,^[11][6] and Collins lists the supermarket and luggage trolley and the hospital trolley as British senses.^[13] In American prison slang a trolley was a wire or string for passing things from cell to cell (1904).^[14]

Timeline

• 1823 – a local name for a low cart, in Suffolk.^[11][6][15]
• 1858 – a low truck with flanged wheels running on rails.^[11][7]
• 1882 – a pulley taking current from an overhead wire; verb, to carry by trolley.^[11][5]
• 1889 – trolley car.^[6]
• 1891 – a streetcar, short for trolley car (US).^[11][6][7]
• 1896 – off one's trolley, crazy.^[11]
• 1904 – prison slang, a wire or string for passing things between cells.^[14]
• 1937 – a small table on wheels for serving food.^[11][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (British) A wheeled cart or basket pushed by hand, used for carrying shopping in a supermarket or luggage at a station or airport.^[13][11]
2. (British) A small table on casters for serving food and drink: The waiter wheeled the dessert trolley over.^[13][11]
3. (British) A bed on wheels for moving patients in a hospital.^[13]
4. (US and Canada) A streetcar or tram; a trolley car.^[13][5][11]
5. (British) A trolleybus.^[13]
6. A device, such as a grooved wheel on a pole, that collects electric current from an overhead wire.^[13][5][11]
7. A wheeled carriage running on an overhead rail.^[5]
8. A low truck running on rails, as in a mine or factory.^[5][11]
9. off one's trolley (slang): crazy.^[11]

Verb

1. To carry by trolley, or to travel by trolley.^[5][11]

Word family

• trolleybus

Related words

• troll
• lorry

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins