car (n.)

c. 1300, "wheeled vehicle," from Anglo-French carre, Old North French carre, from Vulgar Latin *carra, related to Latin carrum, carrus (plural carra), originally "two-wheeled Celtic war chariot," from Gaulish karros, a Celtic word (compare Old Irish and Welsh carr "cart, wagon," Breton karr "chariot"), from PIE *krsos, from root *kers- "to run." The Celtic-Latin word also made it into Greek, as karron "wagon with four wheels."

"From 16th to 19th c. chiefly poetic, with associations of dignity, solemnity, or splendour ..." [OED]. Used in U.S. by 1826 of railway freight carriages and of passenger coaches on a railway by 1830; by 1862 of streetcars or tramway cars. The extension to "automobile" is by 1896, but between 1831 to the first decade of 20c. the cars meant "railroad train." Car bomb is attested from 1972, in a Northern Ireland context. The Latin word also is the source of Italian and Spanish carro, French char.

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to car

autocar (n.)

"car which contains in itself a motor and a source of power," 1895, from auto- + car.

Which is it to be? We observe that the London Times has lent the weight of its authority to the word "autocar," which it now prints without the significant inverted commas but with a hyphen, "auto-car." We believe that the vocable originated with a journal called the Hardwareman, which succeeded in obtaining the powerful support of the Engineer for its offspring. As for ourselves, being linguistic purists, we do not care for hybrid constructions—"auto" is Greek, while "car" is Latin and Celtic. At the same time, such clumsy phrases as "horseless carriages," "mechanical road carriages," and "self-propelled vehicles" are not meeting with general favour. Why not therefore adopt the philogically sound "motor-car," which could be run into a single word, "motorcar"? [The Electrical Engineer, Dec. 20, 1895]

Compare automobile.

boxcar (n.)

also box-car, "large enclosed railway car for goods," 1856, American English, from box (n.1) + car.

See all related words (30) >

Trends of car

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

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career

1530s, "a running (usually at full speed), a course" (especially of the sun, etc., across the sky), from French carriere "road, racecourse" (16c.), from Old Provençal or Italian carriera, from Vulgar Latin *(via) cararia "carriage (road), track for wheeled vehicles," from Latin c

cargo

1650s, "freight loaded on a ship," from Spanish cargo "burden," from cargar "to load, impose taxes," from Late Latin carricare "to load a wagon or cart," from Latin carrus "wagon" (see car). The French cognate yielded English charge (n.); also compare cark. South Pacific cargo cu

caricature

"grotesque or ludicrous representation of persons or things by an absurd exaggeration of what is characteristic," 1748 (figurative), 1750 (literal), from French caricature (18c.), from Italian caricatura "satirical picture; an exaggeration," literally "an overloading," from caric

Pullman

sleeping car on a passenger train, 1867, Pullman car, in recognition of U.S. inventor George M....Pullman (1831-1897) of Chicago, who designed a railroad car with folding berths. The Pullman Sleeping Car....This splendid specimen of car architecture, being one of a number of sleeping-cars to be completed for the Michigan Central...The car itself is admitted by all who have seen it to be, in the matter of sleeping and cooking accessories, and superb finish...

prius

The hybrid car (with a capital P- ) debuted in 1997 in Japan, 2001 in U.S. and Europe....The name supposedly was chosen because the car was regarded as a predecessor of new types....The classically proper plural of the car name is said to be Priora, but that is for the adjective....

separate

Frequently the colored coach is little better than a cattle car....Generally one half the smoking car is reserved for the colored car...., and foul air of the smokers' half of the car....half car. [Rev. Norman B. Wood, "The White Side of a Black Subject," 1897]...

jeep

early 1941, American English military slang, acronym from G.P., abbreviation of General Purpose (car), but certainly influenced...The vehicle was in development from 1940, and the Army planners' initial term for it was light reconnaissance and command car...

wing

late 12c., wenge, "forelimb fitted for flight of a bird or bat," also the part of some insects resembling a wing in form or function, from Old Norse vængr "wing of a bird, aisle, etc." (cognate with Danish and Swedish vinge "wing"), of unknown origin, perhaps from a Proto-Germani

electric

1640s, first used in English by physician Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682), apparently coined as Modern Latin electricus (literally "resembling amber") by English physicist William Gilbert (1540-1603) in treatise "De Magnete" (1600), from Latin electrum "amber," from Greek ēlektron

racer

"one who or that which races," 1640s of persons, 1660s of horses, 1793 of vehicles, by 1809 in American English in reference to a type of snake; agent nouns from race (v.). WHEN a lad, I lived with my father in the then province of New Jersey, where the black snake, with a white

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updated on November 09, 2022

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