Source etymology 1 · variant 1/2
Original entry ↗A passenger vehicle for public use that runs on tracks in the road (called a streetcar or trolley in North America). · A similar vehicle for carrying materials. · A people mover. · An aerial cable car.
Early 16th century, borrowed from Scots, probably from Low German traam (“tram, shaft of a barrow”), from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch trame (“narrow shaft, beam”), said to be ultimately from a lost West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) word, probably from Proto-Germanic *drum (“splinter, fragment”), from Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ (“peg, post, boundary”), cognate with Latin terminus. Compare Middle Low German treme; West Flemish traam, trame. The popular derivation from the surname of the English pioneer tramway builder Benjamin Outram (1764–1805) is false: the term pre-dated him. The sense of a rail vehicle derives from tram-way, in its earliest sense meaning literally a log-covered road, but later applied to the earliest wooden railways, used for transporting coal in carts which came to be called "trams".
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
This page abbreviates 4 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
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{
"name": "ety",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": ":bor",
"3": "sco:-<ety:bor<nds:traam<unc><ety:inh<gml:trame<ety:inh<gem-pro:*drum<ety:inh<ine-pro:*térmn̥>>>>>>>>"
},
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},
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"name": "der",
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"t": "narrow shaft, beam"
},
"expansion": "Middle Dutch trame (“narrow shaft, beam”)"
},
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},
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},
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"t": "peg, post, boundary"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ (“peg, post, boundary”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
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},
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},
{
"name": "cog",
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},
"expansion": "Middle Low German treme"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
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},
"expansion": "West Flemish traam"
},
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"expansion": ""
}
],
"links": [
[
"traam",
"traam#Low_German"
],
[
"trame",
"trame#Middle_Dutch"
],
[
"*drum",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/drum"
],
[
"*térmn̥",
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],
[
"terminus",
"terminus#Latin"
],
[
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],
[
"traam",
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],
[
"trame",
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],
[
"surname",
"surname"
],
[
"tram-way",
"tramway"
],
[
"railway",
"railway"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [
{
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"lang_code": "ar",
"word": "تْرَام",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "trām"
},
{
"lang": "German",
"lang_code": "de",
"word": "Tram",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Hindi",
"lang_code": "hi",
"word": "ट्राम",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "ṭrām"
},
{
"lang": "Urdu",
"lang_code": "ur",
"word": "ٹْرام",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "ṭrām"
}
],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"A passenger vehicle for public use that runs on tracks in the road (called a streetcar or trolley in North America).",
"A similar vehicle for carrying materials.",
"A people mover.",
"An aerial cable car."
],
"tags": [
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],
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}
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