E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Charles’s Wain.
The constellation called the Great Bear, which forms the outline of a wheelbarrow or rustic wagon. “Charles” is a corruption of the word churles, the farmer’s wagon. (Anglo-Saxon, ceorles wœn.)
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Sometimes still further corrupted into “King Charles’s wain.”
Sometimes still further corrupted into “King Charles’s wain.”
