Wagoner

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who drives or operates a wagon, typically for transporting goods or people
2. An individual responsible for guiding or managing a wagon used in travel or hauling
3. Someone who controls and directs a wagon during movement, often over distances or rough terrain

Etymology: A wagoner is, quite simply, the person who drives a wagon, and the word is built the plainest way English builds such words: "wagon" plus the agent suffix "-er," meaning one who does the thing named. The suffix has a longer ancestry than the wagon itself. It traces back through Old English "-ere" and Middle English "-ere," and further to Latin "-arius," which gave Old French "-ier." English therefore reached the same suffix by two routes, one inherited from Old English and one borrowed through French, and it attaches freely to native words like "wagon" as well as to borrowings. The base word "wagon" has its own Germanic lineage. It descends from Proto-Germanic "wagnaz," which passed into Old Dutch as "wagan" and then Middle Dutch "wagen," and English borrowed it from Dutch. The Germanic root is old and widely shared, so the wagon itself was known to Germanic speakers long before the English word was formed.

Synonyms: teamster, driver