wheelchair

English

A wheelchair.

A dog wheelchair.

Alternative forms

• wheel-chair

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *kʷel-

Proto-Indo-European *kʷekʷléh₂

Proto-Germanic *hweulō

Old English hwēol

Middle English whel

English wheel

Proto-Indo-European *ḱe?

Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm

Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥-th₂der.?

Proto-Hellenic *kətá

Ancient Greek κατά (katá)

Proto-Indo-European *sed-der.

Proto-Indo-European *sedreh₂

Proto-Hellenic *hédrā

Ancient Greek ἕδρα (hédra)

Ancient Greek κᾰθέδρᾱ (kăthédrā)bor.

Latin cathedrader.

Old French chaierebor.

Middle English chayere

English chair

English wheelchair

From wheel + chair.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwiːlt͡ʃɛə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈ(h)wilt͡ʃɛɹ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

wheelchair (plural wheelchairs)

2. A chair mounted on large wheels for the transportation or use of a sick or disabled person.
   • 2021 January 13, Paul Clifton, “Island Line bids farewell to 1930s "icon of transport"...”, in Rail, page 9:

     "And there are aspirations that we must rightly meet - people travelling in a wheelchair should be able to get on and off the train."

3. (attributive) Designed for use by wheelchairbound people.
4. (by extension) Any device involving wheels designed to assist a nonhuman animal with locomotion.
   • 2020 March 1, Gabe Bergado, “Watch this tortoise zip around town in a giant wheelchair”, in The Daily Dot:

     To build the wheelchair, Dale Ryder attached wheels from a toy plane to an axle that fits over Mrs. T’s shell.

Usage notes

• See wheelchairbound. The expressions bound to a wheelchair and confined to a wheelchair are offensive, as wheelchairs are intended as freedom enhancers.

Derived terms

• wheelchair accessible
• wheelchair basketball
• wheelchair-bound
• wheelchair curling
• wheelchair lift
• wheelchair motocross
• wheelchair racing
• wheelchair ramp
• wheelchair rugby
• wheelchair tennis
• wheelchair user

Descendants

• → Japanese: ホイールチェア (hoīruchea)
• → Persian: ویلچر (vilčer)

Translations

chair

• Afrikaans: rolstoel
• Arabic: كُرْسِيّ لِلْمُقْعَدِين m (kursiyy li-l-muqʕadīn), كُرْسِيّ مُتَحَرِّك m (kursiyy mutaḥarrik)
• Armenian: անվասայլակ (hy) (anvasaylak)
• Asturian: siella de ruedes f
• Azerbaijani: təkərli kürsü, əlil arabası
• Bulgarian: инвалидна количка f (invalidna količka)
• Burmese: ဘီးတပ်ကုလားထိုင် (bhi:tapku.la:htuing)
• Catalan: cadira de rodes f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 輪椅 / 轮椅 (leon⁴ ji²)

  Mandarin: 輪椅 / 轮椅 (zh) (lúnyǐ)

• Cornish: kador ros f
• Czech: invalidní vozík m
• Danish: rullestol (da) c, kørestol (da) c
• Dutch: rolstoel (nl) m
• Elfdalian: rullstuol m
• Esperanto: rulseĝo, radseĝo sg
• Estonian: ratastool (et)
• Faroese: koyristólur m, rullistólur m, akstólur m
• Finnish: pyörätuoli (fi); rullatuoli (fi) (colloquial, dated)
• French: fauteuil roulant (fr) m, chaise roulante (fr) f
• Galician: cadeira de rodas f
• Georgian: ინვალიდის სავარძელი (invalidis savarʒeli)
• German: Rollstuhl (de) m, Krankenfahrstuhl m, Fahrstuhl (de) m
• Greek: αναπηρικό καροτσάκι (el) n (anapirikó karotsáki), αναπηρικό αμαξίδιο (el) n (anapirikó amaxídio)
• Greenlandic: issiavik assakaasulik
• Hawaiian: noho huila
• Hebrew: כִּסֵּא גַּלְגַּלִּים / כיסא גלגלים (he) m (kisé galgalím)
• Hindi: व्हीलचेयर (vhīlceyar)
• Hungarian: kerekesszék (hu), (dated and possibly offensive) tolószék (hu), (dated and possibly offensive) tolókocsi (hu)
• Icelandic: hjólastóll m
• Ido: rulstulo
• Indonesian: kursi roda (id)
• Irish: cathaoir rothaí f
• Italian: sedia a rotelle f
• Japanese: 車椅子 (ja) (くるまいす, kurumaisu), ホイールチェア (ja) (hoīruchea)
• Khmer: រទេះជនពិការ (rɔtih cŭən pikaa)
• Korean: 휠체어 (ko) (hwilcheeo), 바퀴의자 (bakwiuija)
• Latin: sella rotalis f
• Latvian: ratiņkrēsls m
• Luxembourgish: Rollstull m
• Macedonian: инвали́дска ко́личка f (invalídska kólička), ко́личка (mk) f (kólička)
• Maltese: siġġu tar-roti f
• Manx: caair wheeylagh f
• Māori: tūru wīra
• Navajo: ił naalbąąsí
• Norman: tchaîse à reues f
• Norwegian: rullestol (no) m
• Pannonian Rusyn: инвалидски кочик m (invalidski kočik), кочик m (kočik)
• Persian: ویلچر (fa) (vilčer), چرخک (fa) (čarxak)
• Plautdietsch: Rollstool m
• Polish: wózek inwalidzki (pl) m
• Portuguese: cadeira de rodas f
• Romanian: scaun rulant n, scaun cu rotile n
• Romansh: sutga cun rodas f
• Russian: кре́сло-ката́лка (ru) n (kréslo-katálka), инвали́дное кре́сло n (invalídnoje kréslo), инвали́дная коля́ска f (invalídnaja koljáska), кре́сло-коля́ска (ru) n (kréslo-koljáska)
• Scottish Gaelic: cathair-cuibhle f
• Spanish: silla de ruedas (es) f
• Swahili: kitimaguru, kiti cha magurudumu, kiti mwendo
• Swedish: rullstol (sv) c
• Telugu: చక్రాలకుర్చీ (cakrālakurcī)
• Turkish: tekerlekli sandalye (tr)
• Ukrainian: інвалі́дний візо́к m (invalídnyj vizók), крі́сло-ката́лка n (kríslo-katálka), колі́сне крі́сло n (kolísne kríslo)
• Uyghur: چاقلىق ئورۇندۇق (chaqliq orunduq)
• Vietnamese: xe lăn (vi)
• Volapük: rölastul
• Welsh: cadair olwyn f

Verb

wheelchair (third-person singular simple present wheelchairs, present participle wheelchairing, simple past and past participle wheelchaired)

1. (transitive, sometimes intransitive) To move using a wheelchair.
   • 1991, Gosta Blennow, Jaak Jaeken, Lars Martin Wiklund, “Neurological Findings in the Carbohydrate-deficient Glycoprotein Syndrome”, in Acta Paediatrica‎^[1], volume 80, number s375, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 14–20:

     Almost all of them learned wheelchairing and all learned to manage to eat by themselves.

   • 1996 May 14, “'Human Race'raises fundsfor charit”, in BYU Daily Universe‎^[2]:

     People who took part walked, jogged, ran, rollerbladed and wheelchaired the five kilometers

   • 1996 June 2, “3,000 JOIN SPIRITED WALK TO HELP RAISE FUNDS IN FIGHT WITH CANCER”, in scholar.lib.vt.edu‎^[3]:

     They strolled, ran, walked and wheelchaired the track.

See also

• Merlin chair
• rolling chair