Etymology

trolley

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Today it means: A trolley pole; a single-pole device for collecting electrical current from an overhead electrical line, normally for a tram/streetcar or a trolleybus. Full definition →

English troll ← Middle English trollen ← Old French troller
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic*truzlōną
  2. Middle High Germantrollen
  3. Old Frenchtroller
  4. Middle Englishtrollen
  5. Englishtroll
  6. English todaytrolley

Early 19th century (1823) meaning "cart", of dialectal origin (Suffolk), probably from troll (“to trundle, roll”) + -ey (diminutive ending).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.