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Trolley vs Cart

Posted by James Briggs on June 29, 2005

In Reply to: Trolley vs Cart posted by Bob on June 29, 2005

: : In the UK, when you go supermarket shopping, you collect the goods in a 'trolley'. In the US it's a 'cart'.
: : In the UK a patient will often be put on a form of elevated stretcher with wheels, also called a 'trolley'. What's it called elesewhere?

: In the U.S., that's a "gurney," although in the hospital it will be called (informally) a "cart." "Wagon" is slang for ambulance. "Trolley" is not often used in the U.S., as it is associated with street transportation vehicles on rails or tracks, almost universally replaced by "buses," on wheels. A tea trolley is still a trolley, but a relatively rare household object.

Thanks. The word's not even in my large Collins Dictionary in this sense! The only reference is to a WW1 Irish poet. I gather that the word itself MAY derive from a Daniel Gurney, who invented a type of wheeled cart in the US in the 1830s. I've never heard it used in the UK.
What's the word for 'trolley/gurney' in other parts of the English speaking world?

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