Wagonload

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quantity of goods or material that a single wagon is able to hold or transport at one time
2. The full load that fits inside a wagon, measured by how much it can carry in one trip
3. A cargo amount equal to what one horse-drawn or railway wagon is capable of carrying

Etymology: A wagonload is about as transparent as English compounds get: a wagon plus a load, the amount a wagon can carry. The wagon half traces back a long way. It descends from a Proto-Indo-European root for a vehicle on wheels, which passed through Proto-Germanic and the Old Dutch "wagan" before arriving in English as "wagon" in its Middle Dutch form "wagen". The load half is an older English word, so the compound is simply two native parts joined together. Because the term is built from two words that already existed, its meaning follows directly from them: the contents a wagon holds in one trip, measured by what the wagon can carry rather than by any fixed weight. That transparency is why the word needs no special coinage story; it was formed as needed wherever English speakers wanted to describe a cargo by the vehicle that moved it.

Synonyms: cartload, truckload, carload