A vehicle with runners instead of wheels that slides over snow or ice, usually pulled by dogs or horses.
From Middle Dutch 'sledde' and Old Norse 'sleði', both meaning a sliding vehicle. The word traveled through Germanic languages and entered English around the 1600s, keeping its core meaning of a frame designed to glide across frozen surfaces.
Sledges were revolutionary because they allowed people to move heavy cargo across frozen terrain that would be impossible to cross with wheeled carts—this technology was crucial for Arctic exploration and trade routes through snowy regions.
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