Brewer's: Charles's Wain

The constellation called the Great Bear, which forms the outline of a wheelbarrow or rustic wagon. “Charles” is a corruption of the word churles, the farmer's wagon. (Anglo-Saxon, ceorles wan.)

Sometimes still further corrupted into “King Charles's wain.”

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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