truck English · revision 4081

+ English has two words spelled ''truck'': the vehicle, first a small wheel, probably from Latin and Greek words for a wheel, and the old verb “to barter”, from Old North French, which also gave the noun “dealings” and “market-garden produce”.^(Barnhart 1988)^(MW Collegiate)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /trʌk/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ {{homograph|1|vehicle}}

+

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=borrowing|attested=1611|origins=grc τροχός}}

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is probably [[bor|la|trochus|t=iron hoop]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) from [[grc|τροχός|tr=trokhós|t=wheel]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) from [[m|grc|τρέχειν|tr=trékhein|t=to run]].^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) Merriam-Webster and the Shorter Oxford take it instead as a shortening of [[truckle]], which once also meant a small wheel or pulley,^(MW Collegiate)^(SOED 2002)^(Cresswell 2021) from Latin trochlea “wheel of a pulley”.^(Cresswell 2021)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A small solid wheel or roller, especially one of those on which a ship's gun carriage was mounted: 1611, in Florio's dictionary.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The sense was extended to a cart for carrying heavy loads in 1774,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) especially strong, low two- and four-wheeled vehicles,^(Etymonline) and then, in American English, to a motor vehicle for heavy loads, by 1901 as ''motor truck'' and 1902 alone in Etymonline,^(Etymonline) 1916 and 1930 in Barnhart.^(Barnhart 1988) Churchill told Congress in 1943 that trucks were the American name for lorries.^(Etymonline) The verb, “to carry on a truck”, is from 1809,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) and of vehicles and persons, “to proceed”, from 1925 and 1938;^(Etymonline) the slang “to dance, move in a cool way” is from 1935, from the ''truckin''' dance said to have been introduced at the Cotton Club in 1933,^(Etymonline) and Robert Crumb's ''Keep on Truckin''' cartoons began in 1967.^(Cresswell 2021) A ''trucker'' was a worker who moved loads on a cart in Dickens (1853), and a truck driver from 1955.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1611 – a small wheel.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1774 – a heavy cart.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1809 – verb, to carry on a truck.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1901 – ''motor truck''.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1935 – to dance, move coolly.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A heavy motor [[vehicle]] for carrying or pulling loads; a [[lorry]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # A two-wheeled barrow for moving heavy objects by hand.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # A wheeled platform for moving loads in a warehouse or rail yard.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # ''(British)'' An open railway wagon for goods.^(MW Collegiate)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A frame with wheels under a railway car or the end of a skateboard.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To carry by truck.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # To drive a truck.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # ''(slang)'' To move or travel in a steady, easy way.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[trucker]]

+ * [[trucking]]

+ * [[truckload]]

+ * [[truck stop]]

+ * [[truckage]]

+

+ {{homograph|2|barter}}

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+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1200|origins=fro-nor troquer}}

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|trukien]], trukken,^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) [[bor|fro-nor|troquer|t=to barter, exchange]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) and directly from Medieval Latin trocāre “to barter”, a word of unknown origin;^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) Merriam-Webster derives it from Vulgar Latin *troccāre, probably imitative.^(MW Collegiate) The noun is from the verb, partly through French troc, troque.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Klein 1966)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ “To exchange, barter”: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle,^(Barnhart 1988) before 1225 in the OED.^(OED 1989) It is rare in English before the 16th century.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The noun, barter, trading by exchange, is from 1533 in Barnhart,^(Barnhart 1988) the 1550s in Etymonline,^(Etymonline) with an Anglo-French truke from the mid-14th century.^(Etymonline) The figurative “dealings, communication”, usually negative, as in ''to have no truck with'', is from before 1625;^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) it has nothing to do with the transport of goods.^(Cresswell 2021) In 19th-century American English the notion of barter led to goods for exchange, then stuff in general,^(Etymonline) and market-garden produce is an Americanism from 1784,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) kept in ''truck farm'' (1866).^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) The ''truck system'', the payment of wages in goods instead of money, is from 1743.^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1200 – verb, to barter.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1533 – noun, barter.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * a. 1625 – dealings.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1743 – the truck system.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1784 – market-garden produce.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1866 – ''truck farm''.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # Dealings or business: ''will have no truck with them''.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # Vegetables grown for the market.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # Articles of trade; goods.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # Worthless goods; rubbish.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # Barter; exchange.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To exchange; to [[barter]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # To have dealings; to [[traffic]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[truck farm]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[troke]]

+ * [[truckle]]

+ * [[trochee]]

+ * [[troche]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ An Old English verb trucian “to fail, be lacking”, of unknown origin, survived only in dialect.^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}