tram en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /tɹæm/
- [t̠ᶴɹɛːm] æ-raising
- /tɹam/ (Received-Pronunciation, Scotland)
- [t̠ᶴɹɛə̯m] æ-raising
- trăm
- (Australia) audio
- [t̠ᶴɹeə̯m] æ-raising
- /tɹɛm/ (New-Zealand)
- /ʈɾæm/ (India)
Etymology
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".
Meanings
-
(Australia, UK) A passenger vehicle for public use that runs on tracks in the road (called a streetcar or trolley in North America).
Lizzie and she got a dozen of large bottles and the loan of a basket and we got a currant pan and a half-pound of cooked ham in the shop next door and got on the tram for Whitehall.
1981, Brendan Behan, edited by Peter Fallon, After the Wake: Twenty-one Prose Works including Previously Unpublished Material (Classic Irish Fiction Series), Dublin: The O'Brien Press, →ISBN:
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A similar vehicle for carrying materials.
Trams are a kind of sledge on which coals are brought from the place where they are hewn to the shaft. A tram has four wheels but a sledge is without wheels.
1789, John Brand, History and Antiquities of the Town and County of Newcastle upon Tyne: Including an Account of the Coal Trade of that Place, volume II, London: White, →OCLC, page 681:
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(US) A people mover.
The game Half-Life, for example, begins with a movie in which Gordon Freeman, the player's avatar, takes a tram ride through the Black Mesa research complex while a voice explains why he is there.
2013, Ernest Adams, “Storytelling”, in Fundamentals of Game Design, 3rd edition, [San Francisco, Calif.]: New Riders, →ISBN, page 215:
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(US) An aerial cable car.
It's possible that my family took the tram to Roosevelt Island at some point and the experience embedded itself deep into my imagination where it mixed with other flights of fancy (pun intended) of flying through a Gotham-like city like Batman.
2014, Vivienne Gucwa, “Skylines”, in NY through the Lens, Cincinnati, Oh.: Print Books, →ISBN, page 129:
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(US) A train with wheels that runs on a road; a trackless train.
Each morning, still-groggy early-bird park-goers stumble from the parking-lot tram and head straight to La Brea's cafeteria-style Express for a caffeinated pick-me-up or a meal to start the day.
2007, Matthew Richard Poole, Frommer's Los Angeles 2008, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 236:Taking advantage of the VIP Experience at Universal Studios provides a more intimate and authentic look at the studio than does the regular studio tram tour. […] The VIP Experience gets you off the tram and behind the scenes: into sound stages, prop warehouses, and production facilities and on the sets of shows in production.
2005, Jan Friedman, Eccentric California, Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire: Bradt Travel Guides, →ISBN, page 124:
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(UK, historical) A car on a horse railway or tramway (horse trams preceded electric trams).
The horse-drawn tram has vanished, and so will the trolley, and some eccentric Berlin writer in the twenties of the twenty-first century, wishing to portray our time, will go to a museum of technological history and locate a hundred-year-old streetcar, yellow, uncouth, with old-fashioned curved seats […]
1976 [1925], Vladimir Nabokov, “A Guide to Berlin”, in Details of a Sunset and Other Stories, McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 93:
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(obsolete) The shaft of a cart.
What struck me with most astonishment, however, was the liberal manner of our fair driver, who made no scruple of taking a leap, with the reins in her hand, and seating herself dexterously upon the shafts (or, in Westmoreland phrase, the trams) of the cart.
1851, Thomas de Quincey, “William Wordsworth and Robert Southey”, in Literary Reminiscences; from the Autobiography of an English Opium-eater. […] In Two Volumes, volume II, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, pages 14–15:
- (obsolete) One of the rails of a tramway.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| trams | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
tram rail · trammage · tramyard · tram track · tramplate · tram driver · tram-train · tramroad · tram horse · shoot through like a Bondi tram · Tram Inn · tramload · airtram · tramless · tramline · tram-way · tram locomotive · supertram · man on the Bondi tram · tram-road · tramful · tramstop · aerial tram · tramcar · tram line · man on the Shau Kei Wan tram · tram stop · tramrail · tramway · tramshed
Descendants
Relateds
cablecar · light rail · streetcar · trolley car
Synonyms
Translations (131)
kk трамвай (passenger vehicle) · it tram (passenger vehicle) · gl tranvía (passenger vehicle) · de Straßenbahn (passenger vehicle) · bn ট্রাম (passenger vehicle) · rsk трамвай (passenger vehicle) · mn ᠲ᠋ᠷᠠᠮᠸᠠᠢ (passenger vehicle) · hy տրամվայ (passenger vehicle) · wuu 有軌電車 /有轨电车 (passenger vehicle) · fr tramway (passenger vehicle) · pl tramwaj (passenger vehicle) · crh tramvay (passenger vehicle) · az tramvay (passenger vehicle) · ps تراموی (passenger vehicle) · ar تْرَام (passenger vehicle) · nb sporvogn (passenger vehicle) · uz tramvay (passenger vehicle) · gsw Tram (passenger vehicle) · km ត្រាំវ៉ៃ (passenger vehicle) · fa-ira تِرامْوای (passenger vehicle) · eo tramo (passenger vehicle) · tr tramvay (passenger vehicle) · ur ٹْرام (passenger vehicle) · de Bim (passenger vehicle) · ky трамвай (passenger vehicle) · szl sztrasbana (passenger vehicle) · lad tramvay (passenger vehicle) · ga tram (passenger vehicle) · mk вагоне́тка (vehicle for material) · fr tram (passenger vehicle) · th รถราง (passenger vehicle) · fa-ira تْرامْوای (passenger vehicle) · pt elétrico (passenger vehicle) · mi taramukā (passenger vehicle) · is sporvagn (passenger vehicle) · cmn 路面電車 /路面电车 (passenger vehicle) · pt bonde (passenger vehicle) · ru трамва́й (passenger vehicle) · sh тра̏мва̄ј (passenger vehicle) · hu villamos (passenger vehicle) · et tramm (passenger vehicle) · ro tramvai (passenger vehicle) · cmn 電車 /电车 (passenger vehicle) · yi טראַמווײַ (passenger vehicle) · af trem (passenger vehicle) · ar تْرَام (passenger vehicle) · cs tramvaj (passenger vehicle) · hi ट्राम (passenger vehicle) · ja トラム (passenger vehicle) · id trem (passenger vehicle) · mr ट्रॅम (passenger vehicle) · nrf tram (passenger vehicle) · sv spårvagn (passenger vehicle) · sl tramvaj (passenger vehicle) · ru вагоне́тка (vehicle for material) · fa-ira تْرام (passenger vehicle) · ca tram (passenger vehicle) · ja 市内電車 (passenger vehicle) · lt tramvajus (passenger vehicle) · he חַשְׁמַלִית (passenger vehicle) · da sporvogn (passenger vehicle) · bg ре́лса (one of the rails of a tramway) · ps ټرام (passenger vehicle) · fa-ira تْرامْوا (passenger vehicle) · lv tramvajs (passenger vehicle) · rsk штрицкара (passenger vehicle) · ar تْرَامْوَاي (passenger vehicle) · ja 市電 (passenger vehicle) · ja 電車 (passenger vehicle) · bg вагоне́тка (vehicle for material) · bg трамва́й (passenger vehicle) · nl mijnwagen (vehicle for material) · mk тра́мвај (passenger vehicle) · ia tram (passenger vehicle) · km រថអគ្គិសនី (passenger vehicle) · nn trikk (passenger vehicle) · nl spoorwagen (vehicle for material) · mn трамвай (passenger vehicle) · szl sztrasynbana (passenger vehicle) · be трамва́й (passenger vehicle) · nb trikk (passenger vehicle) · yue 有軌電車 /有轨电车 (passenger vehicle) · my သံလမ်းရထား (passenger vehicle) · nan-hbl 電車 /电车 (passenger vehicle) · fa-ira تِرام (passenger vehicle) · lad טראמבאיי (passenger vehicle) · ko 전차 (passenger vehicle) · ko 트램 (passenger vehicle) · tk tramwaý (passenger vehicle) · ca tramvia (passenger vehicle) · ja 路面電車 (passenger vehicle) · de Tram (passenger vehicle) · vi tàu điện (passenger vehicle) · kmr tramway (passenger vehicle) · ota تراموای (passenger vehicle) · lo ລົດລາງ (passenger vehicle) · km អយរថអគ្គិសនី (passenger vehicle) · kmr tramwey (passenger vehicle) · liv tramvaj (passenger vehicle) · arz طروماي (passenger vehicle) · de Trambahn (passenger vehicle) · sh trȁmvāj (passenger vehicle) · es tranvía (passenger vehicle) · ms trem (passenger vehicle) · de S-Bahn (passenger vehicle) · mel trem (passenger vehicle) · pl bimba (passenger vehicle) · de Tramway (passenger vehicle) · km ឡូរី (passenger vehicle) · sq tramvaj (passenger vehicle) · ug ترامۋاي (passenger vehicle) · ko 노면전차 (passenger vehicle) · tl trambiya (passenger vehicle) · wuu 電車 /电车 (passenger vehicle) · nn sporvogn (passenger vehicle) · cmn 有軌電車 /有轨电车 (passenger vehicle) · fi raitiovaunu (passenger vehicle) · la publicus currus electricus (passenger vehicle) · yue 電車 /电车 (passenger vehicle) · fa-ira تِرامْوا (passenger vehicle) · el τραμ (passenger vehicle) · arz ترام (passenger vehicle) · nl tram (passenger vehicle) · tg трамвай (passenger vehicle) · nl wagen (vehicle for material) · io tramoveturo (passenger vehicle) · tt трамвай (passenger vehicle) · ary طرامواي (passenger vehicle) · sk električka (passenger vehicle) · uk трамва́й (passenger vehicle) · ka ტრამვაი (passenger vehicle)
wikipedia: Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable · wikipedia: Oxford University Press