Cartwheels

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A wheeled vehicle typically used for transporting goods or people that is drawn by animals or powered by human effort
2. Also refers to a playful maneuver where one rotates the body sideways while using the hands and feet
3. It could also describe cart-like devices or structures in various recreational contexts

Etymology: "Cartwheels" is the plural of "cartwheel", a word for a wheel belonging to a cart. The cart part traces back to Old Norse "kartr" and to Old English "cræt", a word that eventually gave English "cart" in the Middle English period. The wheel part descends from a very old Germanic root shared by many European languages, with Old English "hwēol" becoming Middle English "whel" and then "wheel". The compound itself is plain and transparent: a cart joined to a wheel, meaning a wheel of a cart. The sense that later became familiar, a sideways handspring with arms and legs spread wide, is a separate and later extension of the same compound, which is why the word now describes a gymnastic move as easily as a piece of farm equipment.

Synonyms: somersaults, flips, handsprings, tumbles, rolls