Wagon

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A wagon (in British English, sometimes waggon) or dray (low, sideless) is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle. This word comes from the latin vagare : vago meaning I go here and there, I wander. Wagons were formerly pulled by animals such as horses, mules or oxen. Today farm wagons are pulled by tractors and trucks. Wagons are used for transporting people or goods. Wagons are distinguished from carts, which are small and have two wheels, or semi-trailors, which are large and have two wheels, and from lighter four-wheeled vehicles such as carriages. A wagon could be pulled by one animal or by several, often in pairs.

Sometimes, the word wagon is also used for railroad cars, not motorized, for goods or passengers, and the word is a part, the usual short form of station wagon, the non-British term for a sedan, saloon, with an extended rear cargo area. Other names: estate car, shooting brake (UK), break (F), station sedan (Aus), Kombi : generally in German, in English also varied to combi; Variant for VW models; Caravan for Chrysler models, and GM's Opel models; Avant for Audi's wagons; Touring for BMW's wagons.

The word is also sometimes used as a colloquialism for any vehicle, particularly in the British Military, and also again in British English as an alternative name for a lorry (truck).

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

• The Wiktionary definition of wagon
•  "wagon". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. 

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