Where does the word “Gantry” come from and What does Gantry mean?

You may spell the word “Gantry” gauntry if you like, or even gauntree, but the present preference is gantry.

Nowadays the chief application of the name is to a traveling crane, a wonderfully ingenious device mounted on overhead rails in machine shops or the like by which the operator is able to hoist and transport heavy pieces to any portion of the shop.

Our word, greatly altered through transition in French, came from Latin cantherius, “trellis” or “framework,” probably of the nature of the “horse” used by modern carpenters.