On the Wagon Comes From the Water Cart
A wagon is a four-wheeled vehicle for carrying goods. The phrase about giving up alcohol has a specific origin.
A wagon is a four-wheeled vehicle for transporting goods, drawn by horses or forming part of a train. *On the wagon*, meaning abstaining from alcohol, comes from the water wagon: someone who had sworn off drink was said to be riding on the water cart rather than entering a saloon, and would sooner drink from it than break the pledge. *Falling off the wagon* followed naturally. The word came from Dutch *wagen* in the 1500s, a relative of English *wain*, as in Constable's *Hay Wain*.
- A goods vehicle. *A covered wagon.*
- A railway truck. *A goods wagon.*
- On the wagon — abstaining. *On the wagon.*
- Wain — the older English word. *The Hay Wain.*
- Dutch — *wagen*. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | wagon | A wagon. |
| Plural | wagons | Wagons. |
| Related | wain | A wain. |
| Compound | wagon train | A wagon train. |
| Dutch | wagen | A wagon. |
- The wagon carried grain to market.Transport.
- He has been on the wagon for a year.Idiom.
- Wain is the older English form.Related.
Wagon and wain
- Wain — the native English word, now archaic
- Wagon — borrowed from Dutch in the 1500s
- The Hay Wain — Constable's 1821 painting
- Charles's Wain — an old English name for the Plough constellation
- Both come from the same Germanic root as *way* and *weigh*
Dutch *wagen*, from a Germanic root related to Old English *wægn*, which gave *wain*.
Where does on the wagon come from?
From the water wagon. Someone who had given up drink was said to ride on it, preferring water to breaking the pledge.
What is a wain?
The older native English word for a wagon, now archaic but surviving in the painting The Hay Wain and in Charles's Wain.