Trucker

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈtɹʌkə/

Definitions

1. A person who operates a large commercial vehicle designed to transport goods over long distances on highways
2. A professional individual responsible for driving large vehicles to deliver freight across various locations while adhering to safety regulations
3. Someone engaged in the profession of transporting cargo by maneuvering sizable trucks across extensive routes in a timely manner

Etymology: The modern sense of "trucker" has nothing to do with trucks at first. Its oldest ancestor is a Middle English word meaning "one who disappoints" or "a deceiver," formed from "trukien," meaning "to fail" or "run out," with the agent suffix "-er" attached. A trucker, in that early sense, was someone who let you down. The word we now use for a long-haul driver came later, built on "truck," which entered English as a word for a vehicle. Its meaning arrived by way of the freight world, so the modern trucker is a driver of the big rig, not a cheat. Two separate words with the same spelling met and merged in the modern form.

Synonyms: truck driver, hauler