carrus

Alternative forms

• charrus

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin carrus

Noun

carrus (plural carri)

1. (uncommon, historical) A load: various English units of weight or volume based upon standardized cartloads of certain commodities.

Alternative forms

• carrum, charrus

Etymology

From Gaulish karros, from Proto-Celtic *karros (“wagon”), from Proto-Indo-European *kr̥s-o-, zero-grade form of *ḱers- (“to run”). Cognate with Persian گاری‎ (gâri). Doublet of currus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkar.rus/, [ˈkar.rʊs]

Noun

carrus m (genitive carrī); second declension

1. a wagon, a four-wheeled baggage cart
2. a cartload, a wagonload
3. (Medieval) a load, an English unit of weight
   • c. 1300, Tractatus de Ponderibus et Mensuris

     Saccus lane debet ponderare viginti & octo petras & solebat ponderare unam summam frumenti & ponderat sextam partem unius carri de plumbo

     The sack of wool ought to weigh twenty & eight stone & is accustomed to weigh one quarter of wheat & weights the sixth part of one cartload of lead.

References

• carrus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• carrus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• carrus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• carrus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• carrus in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• carrus in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin