From Italian 'caricare' (to load) — a portrait 'overloaded' with exaggerated features, from the same root as 'car.'
A picture, description, or imitation of a person or thing in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated to create a comic or grotesque effect; a ludicrous rendering that distorts the subject.
From Italian caricatura, from caricare (to load, charge, exaggerate), from Vulgar Latin *carricare (to load a wagon), from Latin carrus (wheeled vehicle, cart), borrowed from Gaulish karros, from Proto-Celtic *karros (wagon), possibly from PIE *kers- (to run). The metaphor is of loading or overloading — a caricature exaggerates distinctive features the way one overloads a cart. The same Latin carrus produced English
The Gaulish word 'karros' (wagon) that ultimately produced 'caricature' also gave English 'car,' 'carry,' 'cargo,' 'charge,' 'career' (originally the course of a racing chariot), and 'chariot.' A caricature is etymologically an overloaded wagon — a portrait so loaded with exaggerated features that it tips into comedy.