Drayman

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A professional responsible for maneuvering a horse-drawn vehicle to transfer goods from one location to another serves a crucial role in cargo transport
2. A person who operates a cart pulled by horses to deliver freight or goods between places
3. One engaged in moving items by handling a horse-drawn wagon used to haul cargo

Etymology: The drayman is about as transparent as English compounds get: a dray (a low, flat-bedded cart with no sides, built for heavy loads) plus "man," the Old English "mann" that has meant a person since the earliest records. Its meaning simply follows its parts, so the person it names is the one who drives or works the cart. The dray half has an older and more tangled line. It descends from the same ancestry as "man," but dray itself is a separate English word whose exact earlier history is less securely documented, so it is best understood as a plain English term for a cart rather than a loan from another language. Together the two elements give a compound whose sense has stayed almost unchanged since it took shape.

Synonyms: teamster, cart driver