Shanty is from mid-19th-century North American English, probably from Canadian French chantier ('lumber camp, hut, workshop'), from French chantier, ultimately from Latin cantherius ('rafter; pack-horse'). The historical chain includes French chantier. Older glosses in the chain include "lumber camp, hut, workshop" and "rafter; pack-horse", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, shanty is best read as borrowing, yielding an English noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun, with the sense "a small, crudely built dwelling or shack". English derivatives include shantytown. The result is an English noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.