How come packages delivered by ships are called cargo, but packages delivered by cars are called shipments?
Naval cargo derives from Spanish cargo (burden), tracing to Late Latin carricare (to load a chariot). Conversely, shipment evolved via Germanic scip combined with -mentum, signifying conveyance. Ironically, linguistic permutation transposed oceanic terminology unto land vehicles while retaining maritime nomenclature for maritime vessels.
>>18767317What I find interesting is the word "car" is not actually short for carriage like what many people would assume, it's related to the word carriage, but otherwise actually comes from the Anglo-French term Carre for any two-wheeled vehicle. In fact, the word "car" is actually closer to its PIE origin than the term carriage is, as it comes from the PIE root "kers", which means "to run"
