tramyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[tram 词源字典]
tram: [16] Tram was borrowed from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch trame ‘balk of timber, beam’, a word of unknown origin. It was originally used in English for the ‘shafts’ of a cart, and then for the cart itself. The track on which such carts ran in mines and similar places came to be known as tramlines, and this term was adopted in the 19th century for a track used for passenger road vehicles. These in turn were called tramcars, or trams for short.
[tram etymology, tram origin, 英语词源]
tram (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
c. 1500, "beam or shaft of a barrow or sledge," also "a barrow or truck body" (1510s), Scottish, originally in reference to the iron trucks used in coal mines, probably from Middle Flemish tram "beam, handle of a barrow, bar, rung," a North Sea Germanic word of unknown origin. The sense of "track for a barrow, tramway" is first recorded 1826; that of "streetcar" is first recorded 1879, short for tram-car "car used on a tramway" (1873).