Cartewright

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A skilled craftsman who builds or repairs carts and other horse-drawn vehicles, often working in a wooden-framed trade
2. Someone whose trade is making or mending carts, especially the wooden wheeled vehicles pulled by horses or oxen
3. A tradesman who constructs and fixes the carts used for hauling goods, typically in a village or rural workshop

Etymology: Cartwright is a surname-turned-trade-word that has been in English for over a thousand years, and its story is simply that of its two parts. "Cart" comes from Old Norse "kartr", borrowed into Old English during the Norse settlements, while "wright" is the Old English "wryhta", meaning a maker or worker, which survives today mainly in compounds such as "wheelwright" and "playwright". Put together, a cartwright is literally a cart-maker. The word became common as a surname because trades were often inherited, so the family name recorded who made carts in a village. Many English people with this surname descend from medieval craftsmen who built and repaired the carts that carried harvests, timber and goods along rural roads.