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Concept
Van
Summary
A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some variation in the scope of the word across the different English-speaking countries. The smallest vans, microvans, are used for transporting either goods or people in tiny quantities. Mini MPVs, compact MPVs, and MPVs are all small vans usually used for transporting people in small quantities. Larger vans with passenger seats are used for institutional purposes, such as transporting students. Larger vans with only front seats are often used for business purposes, to carry goods and equipment. Specially equipped vans are used by television stations as mobile studios. Postal services and courier companies use large step vans to deliver packages.
Van meaning a type of vehicle arose as a contraction of the word caravan. The earliest records of a van as a vehicle in English are in the mid-19th century meaning a covered wagon for transporting goods; the earliest reported record of such was in 1829. The words caravan with the same meaning has been used since the 1670s. A caravan, meaning one wagon, had arisen as an extension, or corruption, of a caravan meaning a convoy of multiple wagons.
The word van has slightly different, but overlapping, meanings in different forms of English. While the word now applies everywhere to boxy cargo vans, other applications are found to a greater or lesser extent in different English-speaking countries; some examples follow:
In Australian English, the term van is commonly used to describe a minivan, a passenger minibus, or an Australian panel van as manufactured by companies such as Holden and Ford at various times.
A full-size van used for commercial purposes is also known as a "van" in Australia; however, a passenger vehicle with more than seven or eight seats is more likely to be called a "minibus".
The term van can also sometimes be used interchangeably with what Australians usually call a "caravan", which in the U.
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