The large, ornate plate that is centred on the dinner table even before the food arrives is called a charger plate. Its name reflects its function: the word charge originally meant to load and the charger plate is loaded with dishes of food as the meal begins. The “loading” sense of charge is also apparent in phrases such as charging a battery or charging a cannon. Likewise, when you are charged for a meal, or when you are charged with robbery, you are “loaded” with a burden, a debt in the one case and a criminal accusation in the other. Even the notion of charging toward something is connected: the action of readying or charging a weapon just before making a military onslaught prompted the word to develop a rush forward sense. The Latin ancestor of charge is carrus, meaning wagon, a vehicle whose function is to bear a load. Charge, however, is not the only word to evolve from the Latin carrus. Its other descendents, also pertaining to bearing loads, include cargo, carry, chariot, cart, and even caricature: a caricature is an exaggerated or “overloaded” depiction of someone.