No truck with

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on February 10, 2008 at 13:15:

In Reply to: No truck with posted by Terry O'Donnell on February 10, 2008 at 13:15:

: I just came to the "truck" discussion on Jeramiah Johnson, which I know is a few years past. I have a completely different thought to offer. In the early part of the movie, as he's asking directions where he can hunt beaver, he has bought a "genuine Hawkin and other truck". Truck, then could be "stuff" or, in the parlance of our time, "s**t". In a loose way, it seems to me he's got no complaint/b**ch with the Indians. We have words that devolve into other uses and certainly they did, too.

My Shorter Oxford dictionary says that yes, from the meaning "the practice of barter" the word evolved the meaning "commodities for barter" and from thence it was a short hop to "small articles of a miscellaneous character; odds and ends; trash". Obviously in this case it's the "small articles" sense that is meant. My SOED also says that in the US there was (from 1784) another sense: "market-garden produce; hence, culinary vegetables generally". Any of the Leftpondians here know that one? (VSD)

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