/ˈkæri/
[verb] To hold something and take it from one place to another, or to support a weight while moving. It can also mean to have something with you, or to pass something such as a disease or a message to others.
'Carry' originally meant to transport by cart — so every time you carry groceries, you're secretly a medieval wagon driver.
The word 'carry' enters English in the early 14th century from Old North French 'carier', meaning to transport goods in a vehicle. Old North French 'carier' itself came from the Late Latin 'carricare', meaning to load a cart or wagon. That Latin verb was built on 'carrus', a word for a wheeled vehicle — specifically a four-wheeled Gaulish wagon that the Romans encountered during their conquests of Gaul. The Gauls, a Celtic people, gave Latin the word 'carrus', which is connected to the old Celtic root 'karros', meaning a wagon or cart.
This same Latin root 'carrus' is surprisingly productive in English. Through different paths of transmission, it gave us 'car' (Latin 'carrus' → Old North French 'carre' → Middle English 'carre'), 'cargo' (Latin 'carricare' → Spanish 'cargar', to load → Spanish 'cargo' → English 'cargo'), and 'career' (Latin 'carrus' → Old French 'carriere', a road for vehicles → English 'career', first meaning a racecourse, then a path through life). Even 'charge', in its sense of loading someone with a duty, traces back through Old French 'chargier' from the same Late Latin 'carricare'.
When 'carry' first appeared in English, it was quite literal and physical — it described the act of transporting something by cart or carriage. A merchant would 'carry' his wool to market, meaning he would load it onto a vehicle and drive it there. The idea of a person physically bearing something in their arms or hands came slightly later, as the word broadened its meaning beyond wheeled transport. This shift from vehicle-based movement to body-based movement is a fascinating example of how words gradually expand from the specific to the general.
Over the following centuries, 'carry' stretched its meaning in many directions that have nothing to do with physical transport. By the 16th century, you could 'carry' an argument, meaning to win it. By the 17th century, a river could 'carry' a boat, a sound could 'carry' across a field, and a person could 'carry' themselves with dignity. This last sense — the way one holds and presents their body — is a beautiful ghost of the original meaning: how you 'transport' your own body through the world.
The word took on further metaphorical life in commerce, medicine, and music. In business, a shop 'carries' a product, meaning it keeps it in stock. In medicine, a person can 'carry' a gene or a disease without showing symptoms — they are, in a sense, an invisible vehicle for something else. In music, a voice 'carries' a tune. Each of these uses preserves the ancient idea of something being held and moved from one point to another, whether that something is a bale of wool, a melody, or a strand of DNA. The humble cart of ancient Gaul has, through language, never stopped moving.