What is "van"

Caravan \Car"a*van\ (k[a^]r"[.a]*v[a^]n or k[a^]r*[.a]*v[a^]n"; 277), n. [F. caravane (cf. Sp. caravana), fr. Per. karw[=a]n a caravan (in sense 1). Cf. Van a wagon.]

1. A company of travelers, pilgrims, or merchants, organized and equipped for a long journey, or marching or traveling together, esp. through deserts and countries infested by robbers or hostile tribes, as in Asia or Africa.

2. A large, covered wagon, or a train of such wagons, for conveying wild beasts, etc., for exhibition; an itinerant show, as of wild beasts.

3. A covered vehicle for carrying passengers or for moving furniture, etc.; -- sometimes shorted into van.

"front part of an army or other advancing group," c.1600, shortening of vanguard.

"covered truck or wagon," 1829, shortening of caravan. Century Dictionary suggests this was perhaps regarded as *carry-van.

Etymology 1 n. A (covered) vehicle used for carrying goods or people, usually roughly cuboid in shape, longer and higher than a car but smaller than a truck. vb. (context transitive English) To transport in a van or similar vehicle (especially of horses). Etymology 2

n. (context mining English) A shovel used in cleansing ore. vb. (context mining English) To wash or cleanse, as a small portion of ore, on a shovel. Etymology 3

n. 1 A fan or other contrivance, such as a sieve, for winnowing grain. 2 A wing with which the air is beaten.

1. n. any creative group active in the innovation and application of new concepts and techniques in a given field (especially in the arts) [syn: avant-garde, vanguard, new wave]

2. the leading units moving at the head of an army [syn: vanguard]

3. a camper equipped with living quarters [syn: caravan]

4. a truck with an enclosed cargo space

A van is a road vehicle.

Van also may refer to:

• Van, Vanguard (military tactics)
• Van (Dutch), Dutch preposition
• Van (band), Swedish musical group
• Railway vehicles:
  • Van, covered goods wagon
  • Van, boxcar

A van is a kind of vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van it can be bigger or smaller than a truck and SUV, and bigger than an automobile. There is some varying in the scope of the word across the different English-speaking countries. The smallest vans, minivans, are commonly used for transporting people from a family. 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 was a Swedish musical group making dance covers of classical music. The group consisted of writers and producers Lönn and Wolfgang, and Thérèse Engdahl on vocals. On "Ice Got My Love", Engdahl gets help with the backing vocals from Ellinor Franzén.

Van released one album, Classica.

van is a preposition in the Dutch and Afrikaans languages, meaning "of" or "from" depending on the context (similar to de and di in the Romance languages).

van is a very common prefix in Dutch language surnames, where it is known as a tussenvoegsel. In those cases it nearly always refers to a certain, often quite distant, ancestor's place of origin; examples of this in English can be found in the names Greta Van Susteren "from Susteren" and Rembrandt van Rijn "from the Rhine".

In surnames, it can appear by itself or in combination with an article (compare French de la, de l'). The most common cases of this are van de, van der and van den, where the articles are all current or archaic forms of the article de "the". Less common are van het and van 't, which use the similar but neuter article het. Common is also the contraction ver- of van der, which can be written as a single word with the rest of the surname; an example can be found in Johannes Vermeer (van der meer "of the lake").

Van. is the fourth solo album and second original studio album from Japanese singer Tomiko Van. It was released on December 10, 2008 and contains the title tracks of all four of her solo singles, as well as two b-sides and five new tracks, for an overall total of eleven tracks.

Van is an electoral district of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. It elects 8 members of parliament (deputies) to represent the province of the same name for a four-year term by the D'Hondt method, a party-list proportional representation system.