Trolley vs Cart

Posted by Bob on June 29, 2005

In Reply to: Trolley vs Cart posted by James Briggs 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 sometimes 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 rubber tires. 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?

Interesting. "Gurney" is familiar enough to be used by lay people, or on TV hospital dramas without elaboration.

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