English
carrack
Carrack comes from French caraque, and goes back to Latin carraca.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcarraca1
- Frenchc. 1600–presentcaraque1
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1597–1603carrack1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English carrack
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1597–1603, Thomas Heywood, The Fair Maid of the West. Or: “They [the English] are all on fire / To…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcarracaWiktionary, English carrack
- Frenchc. 1600–presentcaraqueWiktionary, English carrack
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1597–1603carrackWiktionary, English carrack. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1597–1603, Thomas Heywood, The Fair Maid of the West. Or: “They [the English] are all on fire / To…”
The story
From French caraque (compare Spanish and Portuguese carraca, Italian caracca), from Latin carraca, from Latin carrus (‘wagon’); or perhaps from Arabic قَرَاقِير (qarāqīr).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- ‘to run’
course, current, rush, occur, currency, curriculum, hurry, corridor, courier, precursor, incur, concur, cursor, recursive, carousel, corsair, recursion, recur, hurrah, courant, succour, hussar, 41 more
through Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós ‘vehicle, literally runner’
through Gaulish *karros ‘wagon’
through Latin carrus ‘wagon’
car, charge, career, carry, cargo, carrier, carriage, chariot, caricature, 12 more
Today it means
noun A large European sailing vessel of the 14th to 17th centuries similar to a caravel but square-rigged on the foremast and mainmast and lateen-rigged on the mizzenmast.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “carrack”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin carraca / carrack