Learn English – Word for transportation of only people and goods and not data

word-choice

Is there a word for transportation of only people and goods, and explicitly not data?

Example: "On the internet you can't transport physical and material payload like passengers and cargo."

Best Answer

There is one word for humans and another for non-humans.

The word for humans is commute. However, when used in describing transportation, it is intransitive, reflexive verb. You don't commute people, unless you wish to introduce a drastic interruption into their current lives.

The word for non-human is freight. It is used both as noun and as transitive verb.

Therefore, freight and commuter transport. Like, "The next train is a freight and commuter train."

e.g.,

The goods were freighted by train and then by trucks to their destination.

The dictionary, as usual ..

freight (freɪt)
n.

  1. goods, cargo, or lading transported for pay.
  2. the ordinary means of transport of goods provided by common carriers.
  3. the charges for such transportation.
  4. freight train.
  5. Slang. cost; price.

v.t.

  1. to load; burden.
  2. to load with goods or merchandise for transportation.
  3. to transport as freight.

[1350–1400; < Middle Dutch or Middle Low German vrecht]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

commute (kəˈmjuːt)
vb

  1. (intr) to travel some distance regularly between one's home and one's place of work
  2. (tr) to substitute; exchange
  3. (Law) law (tr) to reduce (a sentence) to one less severe
  4. (Insurance) to pay (an annuity) at one time, esp with a discount, instead of in instalments
  5. (tr) to transform; change: to commute base metal into gold.
  6. (intr) to act as or be a substitute
  7. (intr) to make a substitution; change

n

  1. a journey made by commuting

[C17: from Latin commutāre to replace, from com- mutually + mutāre to change] comˈmutable adj comˌmutaˈbility comˈmutableness n
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

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