Whippletrees

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A kind of yoke used to connect a draft animal to a vehicle or plow
2. A mechanism that allows the options of steering or harnessing an animal for agricultural purposes
3. A structural element providing leverage between the animal's pull and the load being moved

Etymology: "Whippletrees" is the plural of "whippletree," a harness pulling bar: the crossbar to which the traces of a horse or team are fastened so that a single load, such as a plough or cart, can be drawn evenly. The plural is simply the form used when a vehicle or implement has more than one of these bars, as many multi-horse hitches do. The singular is the more informative part of the picture. It is a compound of "whipple," an old word for a swingletree or whiffletree-like crossbar, and "tree," here meaning a wooden beam or bar, a sense that survives in other compounds such as "singletree." The whole form points to a wooden bar that swings or pivots so the load's pull is shared between the animals.