The story
From carrier + wave. Sense 2 (“soliton”) was coined by the Scottish civil engineer, naval architect, and shipbuilder John Scott Russell (1808–1882): see the quotations.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
carrier wave
car·ri·er waveToday it means: A wave that can be modulated, either in amplitude, frequency, or phase, to carry or transmit images, music, speech, or other signals. Full definition →