Cartwright

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkɑːt.ɹaɪt/

Definitions

1. A skilled craftsperson who builds and repairs carts, wagons, and wheeled vehicles
2. A person specialized in constructing and mending vehicles like carts and wagons for transport purposes
3. An individual proficient in the design and repair of wheeled conveyances such as carts and carriages

Etymology: Long before "cartwright" named a trade, its second half was a free-standing word meaning simply "maker." The "-wright" in "cartwright" comes from Old English "wyrhta," a worker, and it survives in "shipwright" and "wheelwright." Compound trade names like these were once the ordinary way English labelled a craftsman by his material: the cart-maker was the cartwright, the ship-maker the shipwright, and the people who made things from wood, stone or metal each had a name built this way. The "cart" half is older still and was not always a vehicle of ceremony. Middle English "cartewright" combined "cart" with "wright," and the compound was in use by the time the trade needed a name of its own. Because carts were the heavy, everyday haulage of farms and towns, the cartwright was a fixture of any village, repairing the wheels, axles and frames that kept goods moving.