Conestoga wagon
English
Alternative forms
- Conestogoe wagon
Etymology
From the Conestoga River in Pennsylvania, USA, whose settlers presumably developed early forms.
Noun
Conestoga wagon (plural Conestoga wagons)
- A heavy covered wagon with a curved boatlike body popular in the United States from about 1750–1850. [1717]
- The heavy and boat-shaped Conestoga wagon should not be confused with the lighter and cheaper prairie schooners that largely replaced them.
- 1866, Stewart Pearce, Annals of Luzerne County: A Record of Interesting Events, Traditions, and Anecdotes, J. B. Lippincott & Co., page 344:
- During the summer and fall the covered broad-wheeled Conestoga wagons, moved by four or six splendid draught-horses, were constantly employed in transporting the productions of the county to market.
Synonyms
- Dutch wagon, Conestoga, Conestoga wain