Wagonfuls

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A quantity equivalent to the load that a wagon can carry
2. multiple amounts or loads transported by a wagon
3. the total number of wagons filled with goods or materials

Etymology: "Wagonfuls" is simply the plural of "wagonful," which is formed from "wagon" plus the suffix "-ful." That suffix, from the Old English "full," has long been used to turn a container noun into a measure of how much that container holds, so a "spoonful" is what a spoon holds and a "wagonful" is what a wagon carries. The plural follows the usual pattern for words ending in "-ful," where the final element takes the plural ending rather than the base noun. So "wagonfuls" means several such loads, the way "spoonfuls" means several spoonsful of something. The base "wagon" comes from Dutch "wagen," itself tied to an older Germanic word for a vehicle.