Etymologically
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trolley

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈtrɒli/[1]
  • US: /ˈtrɑːli/[1]

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

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