Wheelbarrow

[William Hupy]

One would suspect that this should be spelled wheelbarrel, as it is much easier to transport a barrel on wheels than to hoist it....but NO! It is the compound word: wheelbarrow. Perplexing to me, until I checked the etymology of barrow, which means a mound, such as a hill. AND also a stretcher for carrying a load... the original had no wheels and was carried by two persons. I guess if a person is carrying a mound of dirt, rocks or manure it is easier to do so with a stretcher, wheeled or not. But the other sense, a hill, is also intriguing. It is PIE in origin and scattered all over the Indo European languages, including berg in German. The Greek, Pergamos, was the name of the Trojan citadel. From Classical Greek to a method of transporting manure, languages continue to fascinate.

[David Myer]

Let me tell you, the Ambarrow at my British boarding school was a great deal more than a mound, especially if you had to run up it in a cross-country race, as we did. It was a monolithic mountain.