1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186 
What's in a name?
Page 66
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
CMindulges in a little etymology
Ever wondered where the words 'truck or 'lorry' came from? We tried a little etymology (no, not bug hunting, that's entomology) to find out. The word truck originates from the Greek word ( What doesn't?Ed) trochos meaning wheel. The progression to the modern HGV was as a metonym (yes, we are just showing off this week) as the name for the wheels on big American wagons was trucks.
The first combustion engine vehicles earned the appellation motortrucks, but as time went on they became just trucks once more.
Lorry is a purely British term dating back to old horse-driven vehicles, where a low-loading trolley was called a lorry. It was originally designed for the carriage of other vehicles, such as coaches.
While our American cousins name anything bigger than a standard car a truck, the British word is specifically meant for medium and heavy vehicles.
Pickups and vans (which is a contraction of the word caravan, a 'covered vehicle') are in a separate category.
Other languages have their own adaptations of the words, such as the Malay lori and the Mexican-Spanish trace, Though troca means truck, a truck driver is called a trailero, which is, of course, an adaptation of the word trailer.
(And for those of you just dying to know, a metonym is a word substituted for another, often wider, noun it is associated with, eg calling vehicles 'wheels', workers 'hands', businessmen 'suits', etc. Aren't you glad you know that now?)