Carters

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who transports goods by cart or wagon
2. Someone who is involved in the profession of moving items using wheeled vehicles
3. An individual engaged in the trade of delivering products using horse-drawn or motorized carts

Etymology: "Carters" is simply the plural of "carter," a person who drives a cart. The base word "cart" came into English from Old Norse, and the "-er" ending marks someone who performs the action or occupation, so a carter is literally "one who carts." The English noun developed in Middle English, where "carter" appeared in the form "cartere" and related spellings. Its history also includes a merger. Anglo-Norman had a word "careter," meaning coachman or charioteer, which came from the French "charretier." English speakers blended this with their own native formation, so the modern word draws on two streams at once: an English cart-driver and a Norman-French charioteer. Medieval surnames preserve the older Anglo-Norman form, showing how thoroughly the two words came together.