/ træm; NAmE / (also tram·car ) (both BrE ) ( US street·car , trol·ley ) noun
a vehicle driven by electricity, that runs on rails along the streets of a town and carries passengers :
a tram route
••
WORD ORIGIN
early 16th cent. (denoting a shaft of a barrow; also a car used in coal mines): from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch trame beam, barrow shaft. In the early 19th cent. the word denoted the parallel wheel tracks used in a mine, on which the public tramway was modelled; hence the current sense (late 19th cent.).