carry: [14] For such a basic and common word, carry has a surprisingly brief history. It does not go back to some prehistoric Indo-European root, but was formed less than 1000 years ago in Anglo-Norman or Old Northern French, on the basis of carre or car (immediate source of English car). The verb carier thus meant literally ‘transport in a wheeled vehicle’. This sense was carried over into English, and though it has since largely given way to the more general ‘convey’, it is preserved in the derivative carriage, in such expressions as ‘carriage paid’. => car, carriage
early 14c., from Anglo-French carier "to transport in a vehicle" or Old North French carrier "to cart, carry" (Modern French charrier), from Gallo-Roman *carrizare, from Late Latin carricare, from Latin carrum (see car).
Meaning "take by force" is from 1580s. Sense of "gain victory in an election" is from 1610s. Of sound, "to be heard at a distance" by 1896. Carrying capacity is attested from 1836. Carry on "continue to advance" is from 1640s; carryings-on "questionable doings" is from 1660s. Carry-castle (1590s) was an old descriptive term for an elephant.
