# How did the word Pickup Truck get associated with a motor vehicle? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 4, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826 "2014-08-04T23:02:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Orionizer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orionizer/32/4442_2.png) [@Orionizer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orionizer)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/21 "2014-08-05T12:17:55Z")
> [@JKilez](#): > > [Semi-Trailer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-trailer). The trailer that the tractor pulls does not have a front axle. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/22 "2014-08-05T17:41:05Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Naturally, in Australia and New Zealand they’re called Utes (short for Utility) I was always under the assumption that what we know as El Camino/Ranchero car/truck hybrids – a passenger car platform with a bed in the back – are the vehicles called “Utes” in Australia (they were much more popular there and production continues to this day, or at least as of a few years ago). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ute\_%28vehicle%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ute_%28vehicle%29) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/23 "2014-08-05T21:47:53Z")
Does Britain have a pickup truck? A Lorry is similar to the US semi truck. I wouldn’t want to drive a lorry in the UK. LOL [![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/07_01/StuckLorryKNP_468x387.jpg) ](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/07_01/StuckLorryKNP_468x387.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/24 "2014-08-06T00:57:58Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > I can’t cite rhyme or reason but I remember reading “somewhere” that small farmers raised crops that were known as “truck” for the simple reason their produce was generally delivered to farmer’s markets originally by horse drawn wagons that were replaced by small trucks. Therefore a pickup truck was one whose original use was to truck to the farmers markets the truck crops produced by truck farmers. I might have dreamed all this or a I might have bought into a joke or sorts. Why the crops in question were known as truck crops I have no idea. The crops were known as “truck” because they were traded or bartered (and were grown for that purpose). It’s entirely coincidental that the vehicles in which they might have been brought to market were known as trucks. That “truck” comes from an entirely different root, a word meaning “wheel”. Pickup trucks are called “trucks” not because they pick up truck, or traded goods. They are so called because they have wheels. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/25 "2014-08-06T14:52:55Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Does Britain have a pickup truck? A Lorry is similar to the US semi truck. > > I wouldn’t want to drive a lorry in the UK. LOL > [http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/07\_01/StuckLorryKNP\_468x387.jpg](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/07_01/StuckLorryKNP_468x387.jpg) Yes, we call them pickup trucks too, or usually just “pickups”. “Lorries” are, as you say, what you would refer to as a semi. And inbetween are vans, which vary from small ones like Transits, the archetypal “[white van](https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7085/6997394929_904aeb2391_z.jpg)”, up to much bigger panel vans. Although some “vans” are really just estate cars with the back seats taken out and the windows blanked out. Like [this](http://www.window-tint.co.uk/92276-2977-thickbox/vauxhall-astra-van-1998-to-2004-g.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2014, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/26 "2014-08-07T02:19:01Z")
> [@SpeedwayRyan](#): > > I was always under the assumption that what we know as El Camino/Ranchero car/truck hybrids – a passenger car platform with a bed in the back – are the vehicles called “Utes” in Australia (they were much more popular there and production continues to this day, or at least as of a few years ago). > [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ute\_%28vehicle%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ute_%28vehicle%29) From your own cite: > [@](#): > > While historically an Australian-designed “ute” has been a 2 door vehicle based on a passenger car chassis (such as the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon), \*the term is also used in Australia and New Zealand to describe vehicles which would be called a pickup truck or truck in the rest of the world.[\*2][3] Thus, it can be assumed that the term is a dialect for vehicles with a cargo well, rather than a specific definition for an automotive body style. In Australia a vehicle larger than 1 tonne with a flat tray (with or without drop sides) is a truck, whereas a vehicle with a ‘well-back’ and drop down tail-gate up to 2.5 tonnes (e.g. Ford F250 well-back) would still generally be called a “ute”. ---
**Author:** ![Catch65](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@Catch65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catch65)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/27 "2016-02-18T03:19:31Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > A pickup truck is really just a traditional wagon without the horses. > > Why is it called a pickup? I’ve been trying to google this without success. The only truck that lifts something up is a tow truck. It picks up a car. > > Truck - where did that term come from? Was the entire phrase pickup truck created at the same time? > > Why don’t we have carriages and wagons anymore? Did the change in propulsion require new words? > > I know horseless carriage was used for awhile. That was a bit wordy. They could have just said carriage after the horse drawn ones disappeared from the streets. Ford, who made the first pick-up trucks, shipped them to dealers in crates that the new owners had to assemble using the crates as the beds of the trucks. The new owners had to go to the dealers to get them, thus they had to “pick-up” the trucks. And now you know the “rest of the story.” ---
**Author:** ![Catch65](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@Catch65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catch65)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/28 "2016-02-18T03:20:54Z")
Ford, who made the first pick-up trucks, shipped them to dealers in crates that the new owners had to assemble using the crates as the beds of the trucks. The new owners had to go to the dealers to get them, thus they had to “pick-up” the trucks. And now you know the “rest of the story.” ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/29 "2016-02-18T03:43:20Z")
> [@Catch65](#): > > Ford, who made the first pick-up trucks, shipped them to dealers in crates that > the new owners had to assemble using the crates as the beds of the trucks. > The new owners had to go to the dealers to get them, thus they had to “pick-up” > the trucks. And now you know the “rest of the story.” The new owners of all vehicles have to go the dealer to pick them up; it’s not as though dealers deliver family cars and heavy goods vehicles, but insist on customers collecting pickups. Plus, of course, the first pickups were built on the Model ‘T’ chassis. And, famously, the Model ‘T’ was _not_ assembled by dealers (or purchasers); Ford is notable for pioneering the mass-production assembly line. So I’m gonna call tfhis as a “folk etymology”. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/30 "2016-02-18T04:34:38Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > A theory: > " The notion probably being of a vehicle for use to “pick up” (feed, lumber, etc.) and deliver it where it was needed." > [pickup | Etymology of pickup by etymonline](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pickup) At Berkeley in the early 1970’s, our all-male co-op occasionally put on a dance. A couple guys would go down to Mills College (All-female college in nearby Oakland) to collect females to bring to the dance. Maybe the horseless carriage they used was a pick-up truck. (How they were supposed to get back home afterward, I never asked.) ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/31 "2016-02-18T04:44:01Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > At Berkeley in the early 1970’s, our all-male co-op occasionally put on a dance. A couple guys would go down to Mills College (All-female college in nearby Oakland) to collect females to bring to the dance. Maybe the horseless carriage they used was a pick-up truck. > > (How they were supposed to get back home afterward, I never asked.) At least you are consistent 😃[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17610118&postcount=8](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17610118&postcount=8) Been done to me, so I’m returning the favour. ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/32 "2016-02-18T04:47:25Z")
#21 A whole trailer is one that carries all its own weight, with wheels at each corner or nearly balanced in the middle; a semi or half trailer has half it weight carried on the towing vehicle. Early Fords were built so that the rumble seat or trunk could be removed and a pickup body installed; don’t know whether that was a simple project or one that wasn’t changed frequently. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/33 "2016-02-18T05:55:54Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > At least you are consistent 😃[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17610118&postcount=8](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17610118&postcount=8) Hey, at least this proves my memory isn’t failing. 🙂 Oh, wait a minute. Or does this prove that my memory _is_ failing? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/34 "2016-02-18T08:41:48Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > So I’m gonna call tfhis as a “folk etymology”. Instead of abusing the term folk etymology I’d call it horsepucky. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/36 "2016-02-18T19:14:47Z")
Dodge made the first factory-finished pickup trucks. Also, reported. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826/37 "2016-02-19T19:16:41Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Why don’t we have carriages and wagons anymore? Did the change in propulsion require new words? > > I know horseless carriage was used for awhile. That was a bit wordy. They could have just said carriage after the horse drawn ones disappeared from the streets. Car is short for carriage. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-the-word-pickup-truck-get-associated-with-a-motor-vehicle/694826.md?page=1)