spring

en-verb

spring (third-person singular simple present springs, present participle springing, simple past sprang or sprung, past participle sprung)

springs (present singular third-person)
springing (participle present)
sprang (past)
sprung (past)
sprung (participle past)
spring (infinitive)
spring (first-person present singular)
sprang (first-person past singular)
sprung (first-person nonstandard past singular)
spring (present second-person singular)
sprang (past second-person singular)
sprung (nonstandard past second-person singular)
springs (present singular third-person)
sprang (past singular third-person)
sprung (nonstandard past singular third-person)
spring (plural present)
sprang (past plural)
sprung (nonstandard past plural)
spring (present subjunctive)
sprang (past subjunctive)
sprung (nonstandard past subjunctive)
spring (imperative present)
springing (participle present)
sprung (participle past)
sprang (nonstandard participle past)

From Middle English springen, from Old English springan (“to spring, leap, bounce, sprout forth, emerge, spread out”), from Proto-West Germanic *springan, from Proto-Germanic *springaną (“to burst forth”), from Proto-Indo-European *spre(n)ǵʰ- (“to move, race, spring”), from *sper- (“to jerk, twitch, snap, shove”).
Cognates
* Saterland Frisian springe
* West Frisian springe
* Dutch springen
* German Low German springen
* German springen
* Danish springe
* Swedish springa
* Norwegian springe
* Faroese springa
* Icelandic springa (“to burst, explode”).
Other possible cognates include Lithuanian spreñgti (“to push (in)”), Old Church Slavonic прѧсти (pręsti, “to spin, to stretch”), Latin spargere (“to sprinkle, to scatter”), Ancient Greek σπέρχω (spérkhō, “to hasten”), Sanskrit स्पृहयति (spṛháyati, “to be eager”). Some newer senses derived from the noun.

cog

(transitive, rare) To equip with springs, especially (of vehicles) to equip with a suspension.


van

(British) An enclosed railway vehicle for transport of goods, such as a boxcar/box van.


your mileage may vary

The United States Environmental Protection Agency requires all new vehicles to undergo a set of standard emissions tests which simulate city and highway driving. Part of the test measures estimated city and highway gas (petrol) mileage estimates. Since no test can exactly simulate all driving habits and conditions, the actual gas mileage of each vehicle will vary. As a result, when these estimated mileage claims from automobile manufacturers appear in advertisements, they are almost always accompanied with the standard disclaimer “your mileage may vary”.

The battery lasts a day in my phone, but your mileage may vary.

When that definition is executed, the metadata for the temporary table is put into your schema (most likely—your mileage may vary), but no space is allocated to hold data.

1993, Jim Melton, Alan R. Simon, “Basic Data Definition Language (DDL)”, in Understanding the New SQL: A Complete Guide, San Francisco, Calif.: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, →ISBN, section 4.3.4 (Temporary Tables), page 74:

In other words, your mileage may vary and my disk-size figures are just estimates provided for your convenience.

1994, Bob LeVitus, Macintosh System 7.5 for Dummies (For Dummies), San Mateo, Calif.: IDG Books, →ISBN, page 328:

We pause here to emphasize that with animals, there are no absolutes. […] We like to say that with any given wolf or dog, "your mileage may vary."

2012, Jessica Addams, Andrew Miller, “Modern Wolf Mythology: The Things that ‘Everyone Knows’”, in Between Dog and Wolf: Understanding the Connection and the Confusion, Wenatchee, Wash.: Dogwise Publishing, →ISBN:

Mallory Ortberg: […] The advice game is the ultimate your-mileage-may-vary exercise—do you have a feeling for when someone is looking for (or needs) a gentle smack to return them to their senses, a bit of empathy, a dose of humor? It’s a tricky balance, I think, between writing something entertaining for your many readers and trying to be genuinely helpful to the original writer.

2015 November 12, Daniel Mallory Ortberg, Emily Yoffe, “Dear Prudie, from Prudie: Emily Yoffe’s advice to her successor, Mallory Ortberg”, in Slate, archived from the original on 2018-02-07:

(Canada, US, idiomatic, often computing) It may work differently in your situation, or be different in your experience.

možná to máte jinak

it may work differently in your situation

ez mindenkinél másként/máshogy/máshogyan van/működik (persze)

э́то мо́жет срабо́тать у тебя́ по-друго́му


accelerator

* First attested in 1611.
* (motor vehicle): First attested in 1900.
* accelerate + -or

a pedal used to control a vehicle's speed

a device that speeds up computer processing

a key which a user can press to activate a menu

As soon as you get onto the slipway, push the accelerator.

(vehicles) A pedal causing the vehicle to accelerate when it is pressed.


car

cars (plural)
carr (alternative archaic)

→ French: car

→ Russian: кар (kar)

⇒ Sanskrit: कारयान (kārayāna)

→ Japanese: カー (kā)

→ Hindi: कार (kār)

→ Urdu: کار (kār)

Inherited from Middle English carre, borrowed from Anglo-Norman carre, from Old Northern French (compare Old French char), from Latin carrus (“two-wheeled baggage wagon”), from Gaulish *karros, from Proto-Celtic *karros (“wagon”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós (“vehicle”). Doublet of carrus and horse.

der

She drove her car to the mall.

I'm a stunt; ride in the car with some bump in the trunk.

2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG), Sony BMG:

If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the ever more expensive and then universally known killing hazards of gasoline cars: […] .

2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion:

A wheeled vehicle that moves independently, with at least three wheels, powered mechanically, steered by a driver and mostly for personal transportation.

kar

automobile, a vehicle steered by a driver

carro

El Norte, Southwestern U.S., Caribbean Islands


diesel

en-noun

diesel (countable and uncountable, plural diesels)

From German Diesel, named after inventor Rudolf Diesel, who developed a heavy-duty engine in Germany (1892–1897) and perfected it throughout his life.

A fuel derived from petroleum (or other oils) but heavier than gasoline/petrol. Used to power diesel engines which burn this fuel using the heat produced when air is compressed.

His next truck will be a diesel.

1959, Steam's Finest Hour, edited by David P. Morgan, Kalmbach Publishing Co., referring to Mexico's last new steam locomotives.
Their effective service life was cut short by an almost simultaneous switch to diesels - a circumstance shared with many an engine north of the border.

(countable) A vehicle powered by a diesel engine.

Their next engine design will be a diesel.

Thumbed a diesel down, outside a cafe.

1980, Kye Fleming and Fred Foster, ""Smoky Mountain Rain"

diesel engine
diesel engine#English:_Q174174

snakebite and black
snakebite and black#English

(UK, slang) Synonym of snakebite and black.


diesel

en-verb

diesel (third-person singular simple present diesels, present participle dieseling or dieselling, simple past and past participle dieseled or dieselled)

diesels (present singular third-person)
dieseling (participle present)
dieselling (participle present)
dieseled (participle past)
dieseled (past)
dieselled (participle past)
dieselled (past)

The only reason the VW bug has a solenoid is to prevent it from dieseling.

internal combustion engine
internal combustion engine

(automotive) For a spark-ignition internal combustion engine to continue running after the electrical current to the spark plugs has been turned off. This occurs when there's enough heat in the combustion chamber to ignite the air and fuel mixture without a spark, the same way that heat and pressure cause ignition in a diesel engine.


drive

en-noun

drive (countable and uncountable, plural drives)

[d̠ɹ̠ ̝ʷaɪv]

From Middle English driven, from Old English drīfan (“to drive, force, move”), from Proto-West Germanic *drīban, from Proto-Germanic *drībaną (“to drive”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots drive (“to drive”), North Frisian driwe (“to drive”), Saterland Frisian drieuwe (“to drive”), West Frisian driuwe (“to chase, drive, impel”), Dutch drijven (“to drive”), Low German drieven (“to drive, drift, push”), German treiben (“to drive, push, propel”), Norwegian Bokmål drive, Danish drive (“to drive, run, force”), Norwegian Nynorsk driva, Swedish driva (“to drive, power, drift, push, force”), Icelandic drífa (“to drive, hurry, rush”).

cog

(computer hardware) A mass storage device in which the mechanism for reading and writing data is integrated with the mechanism for storing data.

jednotka

computing: apparatus for reading and writing to or from a storage device


tractor

en-verb

tractor (third-person singular simple present tractors, present participle tractoring, simple past and past participle tractored)

tractors (present singular third-person)
tractoring (participle present)
tractored (participle past)
tractored (past)

Formed from Latin tractus, perfect passive participle of trahere (“to pull”), + agent noun suffix -or.

(transitive, science fiction) To move with a tractor beam.


limo

He is believed to be a patron of certain brothels and élite “home delivery” services specializing in celebrity look-alikes. On one occasion he was actually caught in flagrante with a counterfeit Vina in the back of a super-stretch, but when the sharp-eyed cop who saw the hooker responding to a signal and entering the limo understood what was going on, […]

1999, Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, New York: Henry Holt, page 495:

No, he didn't play it cheap, but that didn't alter the fact that he was never going to let himself hurt Melodye.

2008, Francine Craft, Designed for Passion, page 244:

There were no limos or extravagances at this point, because we all wanted to make as much money as possible. We played it cheap. No huge catering bills, no wild parties, not even upgraded hotel rooms. Whenever we arrived at an airport Robin would be there to meet us in a rented SUV or big sedan, and we'd head to the gig on our own.

2010, Jeff Dunham, All By My Selves: Walter, Peanut, Achmed, and Me:

No flashy dressers, skimpily dressed starlets, or celebrities stepping out of stretch limos. Instead, on a warm Friday evening in June 2009, one hundred protestors sang prayers, chanted slogans, and carried signs […]

Limo tinted with the gold plates / Straight from the bottom, this the belly of the beast / From a peasant to a prince to a motherfuckin' king

2015, “King Kunta”, in To Pimp a Butterfly, performed by Kendrick Lamar:


suspension

en-noun

suspension (countable and uncountable, plural suspensions)

Borrowed from Late Latin suspensiōnem (“arching, vaulting; suspension”), from suspendēre (“to hang up, to suspend”), from sub- (“under”) + pendere (“to hang, to suspend”), from Proto-Italic *pendō (“to hang, to put in a hanging position”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pénd-e-ti, from *(s)pend- (“to pull; to spin”)). Compare Anglo-Norman suspensiun, French suspension, Occitan suspensio.

der

If you drive over a speed bump, the left and right tires push the suspension upward at the same time.

2011, Chuck Edmondson, “Steering and Suspension”, in Fast Car Physics, Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 151:

(vehicles) The system of springs and shock absorbers connected to the wheels in an automobile, which allows the vehicle to move smoothly with reduced shock to its occupants.

окачване

vehicle: system of springs and shock absorbers connected to the wheels in an automobile


stealth

From Middle English stelthe, from Old English stǣlþ, from Proto-Germanic *stēliþō, equivalent to steal + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Compare Old English stalu (“theft, stealth”), Old High German stāla (“theft”), German Diebstahl (“theft”).

(military, aviation, vehicles, technology) Having properties that diminish radar signatures.


handcart

handcarts (plural)
hand-cart (alternative)
hand cart (alternative)

Vendors were selling sunglasses, bagged snacks, and sundry other items from handcarts in the square.

A cart designed to be pulled or pushed by hand (as opposed to with a beast of burden.)

ձեռնասայլ

a cart designed to be pulled or pushed by hand


motorcycle

motorcycles (plural)
motor cycle (alternative)
motor-cycle (alternative)

→ Bengali: মোটর সাইকেল (mōṭor śaikel)

→ Danish: motorcykel

→ Hindi: मोटरसाइकिल (moṭarsāikil)

→ Malay: motosikal

→ Norwegian Bokmål: motorsykkel

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: motorsykkel

→ Swedish: motorcykel

desc

→ Thai: มอเตอร์ไซค์ (mɔɔ-dtəə-sai)

→ Thai: มอเตอร์ไซค์ (mɔɔ-dtəə-sai)

From motor + cycle, from the Motorcyclette produced in 1897 by the French Werner Frères et Cie.

Her big mission is to recover the precious Blue Star (a glowing rock in a box), which leads to a Western shoot-out, a space-age motorcycle gang, and an unamusing Darth Vader-esque villain.

1995 October 18, Steven Puchalski, “Can these sci-fi videos show us the Woman of the Future?”, in Sci Fi Entertainment, page 36:

That last problem did intrude on Hazzard’s roamings, and when she refers to the living city it is with periodic references to thefts of cars and wallets, with a warning not to carry anything “snatchable” by the thieves on motorcycles who whiz through the streets.

2009 February 15, Judith Martin, “It Started in Naples”, in The New York Times:

Vern rubbed her hands along the motorcycles, admiring their size and power, their silver and black sleekness.

2021, Rivers Solomon, Sorrowland, #Merky Books, page 43:

An open-seated motor vehicle with handlebars instead of a steering wheel, and having two (or sometimes three) wheels.

e-bike

differentiated by societal convention even when having two or three wheels and a motor


bus

buses (plural)
busses (plural)
'bus (alternative archaic)

→ Arabic: بَاص (bāṣ)

⇒ Burmese: ဘတ်စ်ကား (bhatcka:)

→ Cantonese: 巴士

→ Mandarin: 巴士 (bāshì)

→ German: Bus m

→ Hindi: बस (bas)

→ Irish: bus

desctree

→ Japanese: バス (basu)
→ Hakka: 巴士 (pa-sṳ́)
→ Hokkien: 巴士 (bá-suh)
→ Kavalan: basu
→ Sakizaya: basu

→ Korean: 버스 (beoseu)

→ Kurtöp: བས (bas)

→ Malay: bas

→ Pashto: بس

⇒ Sanskrit: बसयान (basayāna)

→ Scottish Gaelic: bus

→ Thai: บัส (bát)

→ Tibetan: འབའ་སེ ('ba' se)

→ Urdu: بس

→ Welsh: bws

Clipping of omnibus. Superseded earlier 'bus, where the apostrophe indicated a clipping. The shift in spelling likely reflects the fact that modern speakers no longer perceive this term as a clipping. The electrical sense is derived from figurative application of the automotive sense.

(automotive) A motor vehicle for transporting large numbers of people along roads.

(chiefly US, Canada) A coach, a bus used for long travels.


bus

en-verb

bus (third-person singular simple present busses or buses, present participle bussing or busing, simple past and past participle bussed or bused)

busses (present singular third-person)
buses (present singular third-person)
bussing (participle present)
busing (participle present)
bussed (participle past)
bussed (past)
bused (participle past)
bused (past)

Machine guns are the most effective form of ‘election campaigning’, but the occupiers appear to also be bussing in ‘voters’ from the Russian Federation, and ‘registering total strangers in the homes of people forced to flee after the Russian invasion.

2024 March 13, Halya Coynash, “Russians with machine guns ensure occupied Ukraine ‘votes’ for Putin”, in Human Rights in Ukraine. The Information Portal of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group:

The ANC has accused the IFP of bussing in voters from other wards to vote during the recent Newcastle Municipality by-election won by the IFP.

2024 March 14, Clive Ndou, “ANC set to open case against ‘ghost IFP voters’”, in The Witness:

(transitive, automotive, transport) To transport via a motor bus.

But if you ask me to bus my children / I hope the cops take down your name

1966, Phil Ochs, “Love Me, I'm a Liberal”, in Phils Ochs in Concert:

...to strike down Detroit's federal court order to bus students across school district lines for the purpose of desegregation and therefore nullify many busing programs throughout the country.

2008, Ashley R. Holm, Racial Differences in Student Engagement and Attainment: A Study of Topeka High School, 1939--1984, ProQuest, →ISBN, page 23:

(transitive, automotive, transport, chiefly US) To transport students to school, often to a more distant school for the purposes of achieving racial integration.

(intransitive, automotive, transport) To travel by bus.


buggy

→ Gulf Arabic: بقي (bagi, “ATV”)

I casually let this information drop as our concierge drives us through the resort in a buggy, a frangipani flower tucked behind his ear. He promises to fix the bug problem and drops us off at the lobby.

2022 November 26, Virginia Feito, “Sweating Through a Honeymoon in Paradise”, in The New York Times:

A small motor vehicle, such as a dune buggy.


shopping cart

/ˈʃɑpɪŋ kɑɹt/

(US, Canada, Philippines) A conveyance used to carry groceries and other items while shopping in a store.

عَرَبَة

conveyance used to carry items while shopping


omnibus

en-noun

omnibus (plural omnibuses or omnibusses or (nonstandard) omnibi)

omnibuses (plural)
omnibusses (plural)
omnibi (nonstandard plural)

Borrowed from French (voiture) omnibus (“(carriage) for all”), from Latin omnibus (“for all”), dative plural of omnis (“all”).


roadster

(automotive) An open automobile having a front seat and a rumble seat.


fire engine

Near-synonyms: fire truck (usually synonymous in current usage), fire appliance

A fire aboard TfW 175007, working a Holyhead-Cardiff Central service on February 8, closed the A483 road while five fire engines from Wrexham, Deeside, and Cheshire attended the scene.

2023 March 22, “Network News: Class 175s withdrawn for safety checks after fires”, in RAIL, number 979, page 13:

(firefighting, vehicles) A vehicle used by firefighters to pump water to fight a fire. Typically, a fire engine carries a supply of water and has the ability to connect to an external water supply.


barrow

From Middle English berwe, bergh, from Old English beorg (“mountain, hill, mound, barrow, burial place”), from Proto-West Germanic *berg, from Proto-Germanic *bergaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰérǵʰos, from *bʰerǵʰ-. Doublet of berg and bergh.
Cognate with Scots burrow (“mound, tumulus, barrow”), Saterland Frisian Bäirch, Bierich (“mountain”), West Frisian berch (“mountain”), Dutch berg (“mountain”), German Low German Barg (“mountain”), German Berg (“mountain”), Danish bjerg (“mountain”), Swedish berg (“mountain”), Norwegian berg (“rock, mountain, hillock, rock bottom”), Icelandic berg (“mountain”), bjarg (“rock”), Northern Luri برگ (berg, “mountain,hill”), Polish brzeg (“bank, shore”), Russian бе́рег (béreg, “bank, shore, land”).


barrow

barrows (plural)
barra (alternative Geordie)

From Middle English barowe, barwe, barewe, from Old English bearwe (“basket, handbarrow”), from Proto-West Germanic *barwā, *barwijā, from Proto-Germanic *barwǭ, *barwijǭ (“stretcher, bier”) (compare Low German Berwe, Old Norse barar (plural), Middle High German radebere (“wheelbarrow”)), from *beraną (“to bear”). More at bear.

cog

The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

In contrast, the Westminster Gazette in 1912 was much more positive about railway staff, praising the "...army of porters hustling and bustling hither and thither with barrows groaning under the weight of bags and baggage and... the ever-patient and long-suffering guards, courteously giving information and advice to the querulous passengers... to the porter the Christmas season means a continuous round of heavy labour, extremely tiring to both nerves and temper, and this fact the public too often seem either to forget or ignore."

2022 December 14, David Turner, “The Edwardian Christmas getaway...”, in RAIL, number 972, page 35:

(British) A small vehicle used to carry a load and pulled or pushed by hand.

սայլակ

(saltworks) A wicker case in which salt is put to drain.


barrow

From Middle English *berwe, *borwe, *bergh (attested in hamberwe and berwham (“horse-collar”)), from Middle English berwen (“to protect”), from Old English beorgan (“to protect”).

A long sleeveless flannel garment for infants.


petrol

en-noun

petrol (usually uncountable, plural petrols)

→ Afrikaans: petrol

→ Tibetan: པེ་ཊོལ (pe ṭol)

From French (essence de) pétrole, from Medieval Latin petroleum, from Ancient Greek πετρέλαιον (petrélaion, “oil of the rock”), from πέτρα (pétra, “stone, rock”)+ ἔλαιον (élaion, “olive oil, any oily substance”).

der

1987 October 29, Advertisement, New Scientist, page 31,
We were the first company to introduce unleaded petrol in Britain, opening our first pump in June 1986.

2000 September 27, Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 106th Congress, Second Session, Volume 146, Part 14, page 19605,
European oil firms are beginning to follow the example of their American counterparts by adding convenience stores to their pumps: the typical American petrol station now makes some 40 percent of its profits from the sale of non-oil products, such as cigarettes and beer.

2003, S. Srinivasan, Automotive Mechanics, Tata McGraw Hill, India, 2nd Edition, page 149,
At a crank angle 6° before the TDC, the electric spark ignites the petrol mixture.

He also admitted that when big trucks bring in petrol, they park along Langata Road[…].

2006 February 10, Kenya Gazette, page 354:

2006 August, Economic Scenario, Pratiyogita Darpan, page 218,
The increase in rates comes just a few days after India raised petrol prices by 9-2% and diesel prices by 6-6% which boosed inflation expectations in Indian economy.

2008, Robin Stonecash, Joshua Gans, Stephen King, Gregory Mankiw, Principles of Macroeconomics, Cengage Learning Australia, page 122,
Most major Australian cities receive their petrol from a single refinery.

(Commonwealth, excluding Canada) A fluid consisting of a mixture of refined petroleum hydrocarbons, primarily consisting of octane, commonly used as a motor fuel.

However, I do feel entitled to criticise the car. There are lots of different versions: manuals and automatics; petrols and diesels; two-wheel drives and four-wheel drives, and it's possible to spend thirty grand on one.

2016, Honest John, George Fowler, Car-tastrophes: 80 Automotive Atrocities from the past 20 years:

(informal) A motor vehicle powered by petrol (as opposed to diesel).


petrol

en-verb

petrol (third-person singular simple present petrols, present participle petroling or petrolling, simple past and past participle petroled or petrolled)

petrols (present singular third-person)
petroling (participle present)
petrolling (participle present)
petroled (participle past)
petroled (past)
petrolled (participle past)
petrolled (past)

(transitive, dated) To fill or supply (a vehicle, etc.) with petrol.


truck

en-noun

truck (countable and uncountable, plural trucks)

Belizean Creole: chrok

→ Bengali: ট্রাক (ṭrak)

→ Bislama: trak

→ Cebuano: trak

→ French: truck

→ Hindi: ट्रक (ṭrak)

→ Indonesian: truk

→ Japanese: トラック (torakku)

→ Korean: 트럭 (teureok)

→ Maguindanao: trak

→ Malay: trak

desctree

→ Spanish: troca
→ Southeastern Tepehuan: trooka

→ Polish: trak

→ Tagalog: trak

→ Taos: tròkiʼína

→ Tausug: tarak

→ Tok Pisin: trak

→ Urdu: ٹْرَک (ṭrak)

Perhaps a shortening of truckle, related to Latin trochus (“iron hoop, wheel”) from Ancient Greek τροχός (trokhós).

(US, rail transport) Abbreviation of railroad truck or wheel truck; a pivoting frame, one attached to the bottom of the bed of a railway car at each end, that rests on the axle and which swivels to allow the axle (at each end of which is a solid wheel) to turn with curves in the track.


vehicle

Borrowed from French véhicule, from Latin vehiculum (“a carriage, conveyance”), from vehere (“to carry”).

uder

But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.

2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion:

Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale.[…]Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.

2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:

In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.

2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6:

A conveyance; a spacious device for carrying or transporting substances, objects, people or animals.


auto

From Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós, “self”), metanalyzed from auto- in words such as automatic, autopilot, and automobile.

It's an auto sedan which we picked up from a wholesaler locally.

For the first eight years of the Tetris Championship Series, the eventual victor used a technique known as delayed auto shift, or "DAS."

2023 December 1, Evelynn Kersting, “GAMES AND TIME”, in University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, page 250, archived from the original on 2025-06-06:

(automotive) Clipping of automatic (of a gearbox/transmission).


auto

en-noun

auto (countable and uncountable, plural autos)

A body-coloured centre pillar signalled the arrival of an electronic four-speed auto, slight suspension revisions and minor trim changes.

(automotive) An automatic gearbox/transmission.

It wasn't too bad but we did hire an auto (couldn't imagine changing gears with my right hand).

(automotive) A car with an automatic gearbox/transmission.


auto

Clipping of autorickshaw, from Hindi ऑटो रिक्शा (ŏṭo rikśā).

der

Hindi ऑटो रिक्शा (ŏṭo rikśā)

Users are often unable to note down the number of the taxi or the auto as the driver will just zoom past.


station wagon

From train station; station wagons were originally designed for transporting people and luggage between stations and country estates.

1952 November, Should You Buy A Station Wagon?, Kiplinger′s Personal Finance, page 45,
Trade-in values for station wagons have shown a marked improvement since the introduction of the all-steel body. In fact, a station wagon buyer need not worry about his investment′s depreciating any more than he would have to if he bought a four-door sedan.

The Negro was lying in a ditch on the left side of the road, face down, headed west, and the body more or less parallel to the road and about a car length behind the station wagon and a car length in front of Price′s car.

1983, Willie Morris, The Courting of Marcus Dupree, published 1992, page 164:

The prosperity of the postwar years, the baby boom, and the birth of suburbia sent the demand for station wagons soaring. As a result, by 1952 almost every manufacturer offered a station wagon model.

2005, Jim Hinckley, The Big Book of Car Culture: The Armchair Guide to Automotive Americana, page 184:

They rushed him to nearby Coledale Hospital in the back of a station wagon where doctors were standing by.

2007, Wendy Lewis, See Australia and Die: Tales of Misadventure Down Under, unnumbered page:

Two Johns (John Hoban and John Groutsch) came to Essendon airport in their Holden station wagon to take me back to Tocumwal for an interview.

2011, Balaji Rao, From India to Australia, unnumbered page:

(US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, automotive) A body style for cars in which the roof is extended rearward to produce an enclosed area in the position and serving the function of the boot (trunk) of a sedan or saloon.


automobile

→ Alabama: mobìlika

→ Hawaiian: ʻokomopila

→ Unami: hatëmopil

From French automobile, from Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós, “self”) + French mobile (“moving”), from Latin mōbilis (“movable”), equivalent to auto- (“self”) + mobile.

Surprisingly, this analysis revealed that acute exposure to solvent vapors at concentrations below those associated with long-term effects appears to increase the risk of a fatal automobile accident.

2013 July-August, Philip J. Bushnell, “Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance”, in American Scientist:

(US, Canada, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand) A type of motor vehicle designed to move on the ground under its own stored power and intended to carry a driver, a small number of additional passengers, and a very limited amount of other load. A car or motorcar.


automobile

As early as 1898 I proposed to representatives of a large manufacturing concern the construction and public exhibition of an automobile carriage which, left to itself, would perform a great variety of operations involving something akin to judgment.


dray

From Middle English draye, dreye, from Old English dræġe (“dragnet”), from Proto-Germanic *dragǭ. Cognate with Middle Low German drāge (“stretcher; dray”), Middle High German trage (“a litter”). Related to Old English dragan (“to pull; draw”). More at draw.

cog

Standing foursquare in the heart of the town, at the intersection of the two main streets, a “jog” at each street corner left around the market-house a little public square, which at this hour was well occupied by carts and wagons from the country and empty drays awaiting hire

1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars:

Let him be brought into the field of election upon his dray-cart.

September 28 1710, Joseph Addison, Whig-Examiner:

Any of various forms of low horse-drawn cart or wagon, often without sides or with removable sides, and used especially for heavy loads.


carriage

en-noun

carriage (countable and uncountable, plural carriages)

From Middle English cariage, from Old Northern French cariage, from carier (“to carry”).


cart

→ Japanese: カート (kāto)

→ Korean: 카트 (kateu)

From Middle English cart, kart, from Old Norse kartr (“wagon; cart”), merged with native Old English cræt (“a chariot; cart”), from Proto-Germanic *krattaz, *krattijô, *kradō, from Proto-Indo-European *gret- (“tracery; wattle; cradle; cage; basket”), from *ger- (“to turn, wind”).
Cognate with West Frisian kret (“wheelbarrow for hauling dung”), Dutch krat, kret (“crate; wheelbarrow for hauling dung”), German Krätze (“basket; pannier”). Wider cognates include Sanskrit ग्रन्थ (grantha, “a binding”).

cog

The grocer delivered his goods by cart.

We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

A small, open, wheeled vehicle, drawn or pushed by a person or animal, often with two wheels on one axle, more often used for transporting goods than passengers.

qerre

small, open, wheeled vehicle — see also wagon

A small motor vehicle resembling a car; a go-cart.

карт

small motor vehicle resembling a car; a go cart


cart

Elysse got sober before entering college but soon found that seemingly everyone on her dorm floor habitually used weed. ¶ "Not only carts," she said, referring to the cannabis cartridges used in vape pens, "but bongs, pipes, bowls — absolutely everything."

2022 June 23, Christina Caron, quoting Elysse, “Teens Are Getting Sick From Products With High THC Levels”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-12-19:

Vapes are a relatively new innovation, and at this point, the process of feeding cannabis oil to a heat source creates a few challenges for devices like disposable carts to overcome.

2023 March 17, Danielle Guercio, “How to Unclog a Vape Pen”, in Lifehacker, archived from the original on 2023-12-22:

(slang) A cartridge containing cannabis oil used in vape pens.


dandy

en-adj

dandy (comparative dandier, superlative dandiest)

dandier (comparative)
dandiest (superlative)

Borrowed from Scots dandy (“a fop; one who is well-dressed”). Of uncertain origin.
Possibly from Dandy, a diminutive of Andrew, yet the Scots word is used also in reference to women. Alternatively, possibly a back-formation of Scots dandilly, dandillie (“one who is spoiled or pampered; a "pet"”). Compare English dandle and dander.

bor

What a dandy little laptop you have.

Grip Sures are dandy shoes for anything that comes along. Hiking, climbing, canoeing, around camp or in the gym — you can't have anything better.

Its gonna be just dandy / The day I take my Candy / And make him mine all mine

1945, Mack David, Alex C Kramer, Joan Whitney, “Candy”, performed by Nat King Cole:

A perfectly dandy cartoon feature, “The Jungle Book,” scooted into local theaters yesterday just ahead of the big day, and it's ideal for the children.

1967 December 23, “Disney ‘Jungle Book’ Arrives Just in Time”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:


jam sandwich

(UK, Ireland, slang) (from the common UK colour scheme of white with a red reflective horizontal band) A police car.


caterpillar

caterpillars (plural)
caterpiller (alternative archaic)

/ˈkætəˌpɪlə/

/ˈkætɚˌpɪlɚ/

/ˈkætəˌpɪlɚ/

From Middle English catirpel, catirpeller, probably from Old Northern French catepeluse (Modern French chatte + pileuse (“hairy cat”)), from Late Latin catta + pilōsa. The sense "rapacious, extortionate person" arose by association with obsolete piller (“plunderer”). See Modern Norman cattepeleuse.

Bristow Castle, which they say is held
By Busbie, Bagot, and their Complices,
The Caterpillers of the Commonwealth,
Which I haue sworne to weed, and plucke away.

1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 33:

(obsolete) A rapacious, extortionate person preying upon the community.


ambulance

→ Baharna Arabic: عمبلوص (ʕambalūṣ)

→ Chichewa: ambulansi

→ Hindi: एम्बुलेंस (embulẽs)

→ Malay: ambulans

→ Swahili: ambulensi

African-American Vernacular, also Southern American English

Borrowed from French ambulance, which replaced hôpital ambulant (“moving hospital”) via the suffix -ance, from Latin ambulō (“to walk; to go about”).

EtymOnLine

Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “ambulance”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

An emergency vehicle designed for transporting seriously ill or injured people to a hospital.


bulldozer

/ˈbʊlˌdəʊzə/

Originally bull-dozer (1875, Louisiana, US), in the bullier and terrorizer sense; bulldoze + -er. The name for the earthmoving machine came later, figuratively, from that sense.

The bulldozer is a caterpillar tractor on the front of which is mounted a heavy steel blade which can be moved up and down by hydraulic gear. By sheer brute force it can push down trees and hedges, remove obstructions (including light brickwork) and level and consolidate newly-tipped banks.

1943 September and October, “Railway Construction and Operation at War Department Depots”, in Railway Magazine, page 262:

Typically for the 'get-on-with-it' era, the railway and military worked like demons to restore the vital rail link. The crater was rapidly filled in and the earth tamped solid, the wreckage was removed by breakdown trains, new rails and sleepers were rushed forward by willing hands, and US Army bulldozers piled in. By 2020 on the same day, both tracks were open for traffic again where there had been a gaping pit just hours before.

2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:

A tractor with caterpillar tracks and an attached blade for pushing earth and building debris for coarse preliminary surface grading, demolishing building structures, etc.

chidí naaʼnaʼí bidááhdę́ę́ʼ yee nahazidí


bier

From Middle English beer, beere, bere, from Old English bēr, (West Saxon) bǣr (“stretcher, bier”), from Proto-West Germanic *bāru, from Proto-Germanic *bērō, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry, bear”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Beere (“stretcher, bier”), Dutch baar (“bier”), German Bahre (“bier, stretcher”). More at bear.

cog

On April 5, 1925, Chiang Kai-shek returned from the First Eastern Expedition to the Whampoa Military Academy to officiate at a funeral service for Sun Yat-sen, who had died in Peking on March 12. Huang Chi-lu, then a young professor of political science at the University of Kwangtung and destined to become director of the Kuomintang Archives some forty years later, has informed us of the display of strong emotion evidenced by Chiang on this occasion: "The service was officiated by Mr. Chiang and Liao Chung-k'ai and was attended by over four thousand officers, cadets, and soldiers. As the funeral ceremonies began, Mr. Chiang, unable to control himself, wept bitterly and audibly, causing all in the assembly to shed tears."¹ Three years later, at the conclusion of the Northern Expedition, a similarly melodramatic scene unfolded before the eyes of the public as Chiang visited Sun's bier in the suburbs of Peking.

1971, Pichon Pei Yung Loh, The early Chiang Kai-shek: A STUDY OF HIS PERSONALITY AND POLITICS, 1887-1924, Columbia University Press, page 1:

A platform or stand where a body or coffin is placed.


glider

From Middle English glider, glydare, equivalent to glide + -er.

It is a reversible rule, and an interesting one. Shortly after I implemented it, Chris and I were watching it run from a small random configuration of vants, when we noticed a structure consisting of 2 vants propagating away from the others -- it is a glider of sorts, consisting of 2 cooperating vants moving along, erasing each others' trail.

1989 June 11, David Hiebeler, comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet):

I wanted to test some totalistic automaton and the glider with the B024S1 rule, which Ilmari Karonen described.

2003 May 13, Frank Buss, “Totalistic Explorer and squirm”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet):

By contrast, consider a rule like Seeds (B2/S) that has "gliders" and oscillators and so forth, so theoretically it might support universal computation somehow.

2007 May 12, Dave Greene, “Wanted: 2D CA, "as complex" but "denser" than Life”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet):

(cellular automata) In the Game of Life, a particular configuration of five cells that recurs periodically at fixed offsets and appears to "walk" across the grid.

(by extension) Any spaceship in a cellular automaton, especially one which exhibits glide reflection.


runner

From Middle English rennere, rynner, urnare, equivalent to run + -er. Cognate with Old Norse rennari (“runner; messenger”). Displaced earlier Middle English runel (“runner”), from Old English rynel (“runner”; also “messenger, courier”).

vrapues

somebody who runs, who moves at a fast pace

махови́к

mechanical part intended to guide or aid something else to move

A leaping food fish (Elagatis pinnulatis) of Florida and the West Indies; the skipjack, shoemaker, or yellowtail.


cab

Dad looked up to catch sight of the man in the crane’s cab. He knew that DEVILISH smirk anywhere. It was Fingers.

2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], “”, in Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN, page 324:

A similar compartment in other vehicles.


limousine

Borrowed from French limousine, from region Limousin, originally an adjective referring to the city Limoges, from Latin Lemovices (adjective Lemovicīnus), name of a Gaulish tribe in central France, most likely a reference to their elm bows and spears, of same ultimate origin as elm.

An automobile for transportation to or from an airport, including sedans, vans, and buses.


Jeep

From GP, standing for "general purpose".

A vehicle (of a particular brand) suitable for rough terrain.


beater

From Middle English beter, betere, bettere, from Old English bēatere (“a beater; boxer, fighter; champion”), equivalent to beat + -er. Related to beetle (“a type of mallet”).

inh

The beaters halted in a group to watch, and some of them could not refrain from clicking their tongues; they thought it queer and rather shocking to see a woman handle a gun.

1934, George Orwell, chapter 14, in Burmese Days:

"Our beaters are doing a marvellous job, just listen to them, will you?"

1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XV, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 158:

A person who drives game towards shooters in a hunting party, typically working in a group with other beaters.

drijver

person who drives game towards the shooters


cabriolet

Of late years, cabriolets, and English stanhopes, and tilburys, have been introduced into St. Petersburgh; but the real national carriage for the town is the Droshky.

1829, Augustus Bozzi Granville, St. Petersburgh, a journal of travels to and from that capital:

"I think," said Isabella, startling Louisa, who had been watching the cabriolet down the street, "that Lady Penrhyn might have asked you to go with mamma."

1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 72:

(originally) A light two- or four-wheeled carriage with a folding top, pulled by a single horse.

кабриолет

a light carriage with a folding top, pulled by a single horse


taxi

→ Burmese: တက္ကစီ (takka.ci)

→ Cantonese: 的士 (dik¹ si⁶⁻²)

→ Mandarin: 的士 (dīshì, díshì)

→ Mandarin: 德士 (déshì)

→ Chichewa: takisii

→ Irish: tacsaí

desctree

→ Japanese: タクシー (takushī)
→ Hakka: 他庫西 /他库西 (thà-khu-sí)
→ Min Nan: tha-khú-sih

→ Korean: 택시 (taeksi)

→ Malay: teksi

→ Welsh: tacsi

→ Yiddish: טאַקסי (taksi)

→ Yoruba: takisí; tasín

Shortened from taximeter cab, taximeter (“automatic meter that records distance and fare”) from French taximètre, from German Taxameter (whence also English taxameter), coined from Medieval Latin taxa (“tax, charge”). More at tax, task.
The aviation sense originally derived for a slang term for training aircraft used for practicing ground operations, which were said to drive around the airfield like a taxicab, and subsequently applied to all aircraft ground movements.

"Taxi," he called. And when one pulled up to the curb with screeching brakes he ordered, "The nearest restaurant."

1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 12:

[Sobbing uncontrollably] I thought I could make it work between us because you looked a bit like a man.
TAXI!

2007 August 24, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 2, Episode 1

A vehicle that may be hired for single journeys by members of the public, particularly one with an automated meter to calculate the fare.

ભાડૂતી ગાડી

bhāḍūtī gāḍī

yellow cab

licensed taxis in NYC & some other locations

Uber

taxi-style services hired through a ridesharing app


litter

en-noun

litter (countable and uncountable, plural litters)

litters (plural)
liter (alternative)
litere (alternative)
lytter (alternative)
lyttre (alternative)
littor (alternative)
littour (alternative)
litre (alternative)
licter (alternative)
letter (alternative)
lictier (alternative)
licture (alternative)
litour (alternative)
littier (alternative)
littre (alternative)

From Middle English litere, lytere, &c., from Anglo-Norman litere, litiere, &c., from Old French litiere (“bedding; bed of loose straw; litter”), from Late Latin lectuāria (“bedding; blankets”), from Latin lectus (“bed; couch”) + -āria (“forming related nouns”), from Proto-Italic *lektos (“[thing] lain upon”), from *leɣō (“to lie down”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-. Cognate with French lit and litière.

der

Reading and Leeds Festivals
Saint George Hare
litter
litter (disambiguation)

枯枝落叶层

layer of dead leaves and other organic matter

andor

litter used for Portuguese Catholic processions

takhtrawan

enclosed Middle Eastern & Indian animal-borne litters or open Persian & Indian human-borne mobile thrones

chowpaul

open Indian litter with arched support pole

nalki

princely Indian litter borne by many men; a groom's litter

mikoshi

ceremonial Japanese litter for Shinto idols

When they went out, they sat in litters, which were curtained.

1922, Maneckji Nusservanji Dhalla, Zoroastrian Civilization, page 219:

"The Chengtu revolutionaries were fantastically colourful in the Szechwanese manner—they costumed themselves as heroes of the stage and their energies were chiefly occupied in tying ropes across the main streets so that when Imperial officials rode by in their litters they would have to get down and crawl under, losing face.

1942 March, “Notes and News: Monument to a Stillborn Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 88:

(countable) A mobile bed or couch transported upon or suspended from poles placed over human shoulders or animal backs.

(countable, loosely) The general category of all such similar vehicles, inclusive of sedan chairs, hammock litters, and the like.

مِحَفَّة

platform designed to carry a person or a load — see also sedan chair, palanquin


axle

From Middle English axil, in turn a combination of Old English eax and Old Norse ǫxull.

Axle in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

The pin or spindle on which a wheel revolves, or which revolves with a wheel.

լիսեռ

the pin or spindle on which a wheel revolves, or which revolves with a wheel

A transverse bar or shaft connecting the opposite wheels of a car or carriage; an axletree.

the Sun’s axle


autobus

en-noun

autobus (plural autobuses or autobusses)

From auto- (prefix meaning ‘self’, in the sense of being self-propelled) + bus. Sense 2 (“large group of cyclists who have fallen behind the peloton”) is borrowed from French autobus.

prefix

(road transport, dated) A bus that is a motor vehicle, as opposed to earlier horse-drawn buses.


technical

en-noun

technical (countable and uncountable, plural technicals)

From Late Latin technicus + -al, from Ancient Greek τεχνικός (tekhnikós), from τέχνη (tékhnē, “skill”).

“Individuals or groups of people who have trucks mounted with antiaircraft guns, known as ‘technicals,’ should bring those battlewagons to Mogadishu’s old port,” he said.

2007 January 2, Jeffrey Gettleman, “After 15 Years, Someone’s in Charge in Somalia, if Barely”, in New York Times:

A pickup truck with a gun mounted on it.

(basketball) Ellipsis of technical foul.

(video games) A special move in certain fighting games that cancels out the effect of an opponent's attack.

technical school
technical school#English

technical rehearsal
technical rehearsal#English

(informal, countable, uncountable) Ellipsis of technical rehearsal.


camper

first-person shooting
first-person shooter

(video games, derogatory) A person who stays in one spot during a first-person shooting game, to guard an item etc.

kämppäri

video games: person who stays in one spot


butt

en-verb

butt (third-person singular simple present butts, present participle butting, simple past and past participle butted)

butts (present singular third-person)
butting (participle present)
butted (participle past)
butted (past)

From Middle English butten, from Anglo-Norman buter, boter (“to push, butt, strike”), from Frankish *bautan (“to hit, beat”), from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to beat, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewd- (“to beat, push, strike”). Cognate with Old English bēatan (“to beat”). More at beat.

һөҙөшөү

(intransitive) to strike bluntly with the head

Teacher! He just butted me!

Additionally, kids are pinched, fondled, propositioned, and hit; and it all goes unseen amid the general confusion and nonspecific orders from the cafeteria supervisors who are yelling things like, "Keep it down, you people!" "No butting!" "Wait your turn, boys!" All of which sound as though there is law and order, just no actual justice to the victim.

2016, Chandler, Dan, Bullying in Plain Sight: How Inattentive Adults Encourage the School Bullies, Mustang, O.K.: Tate Publishing and Enterprises, LLC, →ISBN, page 45:

(transitive, intransitive, eastern Canada, parts of the northeastern US) To cut in line (in front of someone).


butt

From Middle English bit, bitte, bytte, butte (“leather bottle”), from Old English bytt, byt (from Proto-West Germanic *buttjā) and Old French boute (“cask”) and other etymologies on this page, all from Vulgar Latin *buttia. Doublet of boccia.

Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31.5 gallons, a rundlet 18.5 gallons. –

1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, page 205:

(English units) An English measure of capacity for liquids, containing 126 wine gallons which is one-half tun.


rickshaw

rickshaws (plural)
ricksha (alternative)
rikisha (alternative)
rikshaw (alternative)
'rickshaw (alternative)
riksha (alternative)
ricsha (alternative)

→ Italian: risciò

desc

→ German: Rikscha (or directly from Japanese)

Borrowed from Japanese 力(りき)車(しゃ) (rikisha), a clipping of 人(じん)力(りき)車(しゃ) (jinrikisha), from Middle Chinese 人力 (nyin lik, “human power”) + 車 (t͡ʃʰæ, “cart”) (compare Mandarin 人力車 /人力车 (rénlìchē)).

com

A two-wheeled carriage pulled along by a person.


jinriksha

en-noun

jinriksha (plural jinrikshas or jinriksha)

jinrikshas (plural)
jinriksha (plural)
jinricksha (alternative)
jinrickshaw (alternative)
jinrikisha (alternative)
jinnyrickshaw (alternative)

/ˌd͡ʒɪnˈɹɪk.ʃə/

Borrowed from Japanese 人力車(じんりきしゃ) (jinrikisha).

There are no roads outside the villages in northern Yezo, no jinriksha,—those most fascinating man-power carriages,—no kago, or swinging cars, and no side-saddles...

1898 July, Mabel Loomis Todd, "In Aino-land", The Century Illustrated Montly Magazine, Vol. LVI, No. 3, p. 346

In the Transportation Buildin' is a map one hundred feet long, showing the transportation facilities of the Empire, a perfect network of railways and telegraphand telephone wires, showin' they have other ways of gettin' 'round there besides man-carts and jinrikshas, yes, indeed!

1904, Marietta Holley, Samantha at the St. Louis Exposition, →ISBN:

Then a treat is in store for me! Three jinriksha are procured, and we ride off to the station. My, what a thrill!!!

1930 January 4, Ruth Downing, “Our Sunday School Missionary in Japan”, in John van Schaick, Jr., editor, The Christian Leader, volume XXXIII, number 1, Boston, Mass.; Chicago, Ill.: Universalist Publishing House, →OCLC, page 27, column 1:


phaeton

It had been settled that Lorraine was to drive Emily in his phaeton. It is true the sun was full in her eyes, the wind high, and the dust, which is just mud in high spirits, flew round them in clouds; but Emily found her ride delightful.

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 260:

...I saw the girls of Nob Hill on their way to school, kicking pebbles at each other and laughing; I saw young ladies coming home past curfew in their beaus' phaetons...

2004, Andrew Sean Greer, The Confessions of Max Tivoli, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 43:

(vehicles) a light four-wheeled open carriage drawn by four horses


jigger

→ Catalan: gigre

From jig + -er (agent suffix). Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary suggests a possible link to Old High German gīga (“fiddle”).

(nautical, New England) A small fishing vessel, rigged like a yawl.

“an air-brush is a big thing-a-ma-bob or whatcha-callit, full of gas, and when you turn on a little jigger, it causes compressed air to squeeze out, which, in turn, going through a needle—” “That wasn't part of the contract, Mr. Jones,” […]

(US) A placeholder name for any small mechanical device.


dolly

Welsh: doli

From doll + -y, from the given name Dorothy, originally applied either to a woman or female pet or to a children's toy, and expanded to refer to various types of contrivances or devices. The Online Etymology Dictionary, while considering the reason for applying it to such devices unobvious, compares how the names jack, jenny and jimmy are also applied to devices.

rattaat

term not specific to bridge construction

An unpowered vehicle (trailer) designed for connection to a tractor unit, truck or prime mover vehicle, with strong traction power.


hearse

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-hearse.wav

Alternative form of hearst (“A hind (female deer) in the second or third year of her age”).


sled

From Middle English sledde, from Middle Dutch sledde or Middle Low German sledde (compare Dutch slee, slede, Low German Sleden), from Proto-Germanic *slidô (compare Saterland Frisian sliede, German Schlitten, Norwegian slede). Doublet of sleigh; also related to slide.

The child zoomed down the hill on his sled.

en:small light vehicle with runners and no draft animal

A small, light vehicle with runners, used recreationally, mostly by children, for sliding down snow-covered hills; no draft animal pulls it.

"Mush!" he yelled at the dogs pulling the sled.

en:vehicle with runners, often with draft animals

(chiefly Canada, US) A vehicle on runners, used for conveying loads over the snow or ice, and often pulled by sled dogs.

We saw them go by on their sleds this afternoon, headed toward their grandfather's quarter section.

(slang, chiefly Canada, US) A snowmobile.

He was a bit reckless and frankly we were nervous about riding with him in that big old sled of his, a Cadillac with a V-8.

That sled had manual drum brakes on all four corners.

(slang, chiefly Canada, US, figuratively) A car (automobile) or truck, usually called so with the implication of sledlike traits: heavy, low-slung, and prone to going fast but not braking or cornering particularly well.


sleigh

From Modern Dutch slee, from Middle Dutch slede, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *slidô. Doublet of sled and further related to slide.

Santa travels in a sleigh.

In 1958, it was reported that for "the fourth year in succession, staff of four South London stations have combined to decorate the booking hall at Peckham Rye station". They installed a nativity scene, models of Father Christmas, and a sleigh driven by huskies, and Christmas trees were placed around the station.

2023 December 27, David Turner, “Silent lines...”, in RAIL, number 999, page 29:

A vehicle, generally pulled by an animal, which moves over snow or ice on runners, used for transporting persons or goods. (contrast "sled", which is smaller)


wagonette

wagonettes (plural)
waggonette (alternative)

The cabs here are mostly covered waggonettes, with one horse. They hold four people; the sides have coloured glass, and behind the driver there is a window which is drawn aside when you communicate with him.

1901 July 19, “To Australia and Back”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 10, page 298:

On glowing summer afternoons wagonettes came full of Americans and cultured suburbans to see the sepulchre

1911, G. K. Chesterton, “The Sign of the Broken Sword”, in The Innocence of Father Brown:

The departure was not unduly prolonged.[…]Within the door Mrs. Spoker hastily imparted to Mrs. Love a few final sentiments on the subject of Divine Intention in the disposition of buckets; farewells and last commiserations; a deep, guttural instigation to the horse; and the wheels of the waggonette crunched heavily away into obscurity.

1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

He was a peasant worker from Tienchen County, and had been working on the dam, carrying earth and stone or pushing wagonettes here for half a year.

1954, People's China, numbers 1-12, Peking: Foreign Languages Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 31, column 1:

A kind of four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage, normally uncovered.


carpenter

From Middle English carpenter, from Anglo-Norman carpenter (compare Old French charpentier), from Late Latin carpentārius (“a carpenter”), from Latin carpentārius (“a wagon-maker, carriage-maker”), from Latin carpentum (“a two-wheeled carriage, coach, or chariot, a cart”), from Gaulish carbantos, from Proto-Celtic *karbantos (“chariot, war chariot”), probably related to Proto-Celtic *karros (“wagon”). Doublet of carpintero. More at car.
Displaced native Old English trēowwyrhta (literally “tree worker”).

ncog

A person skilled at carpentry, the trade of cutting and joining timber in order to construct buildings or other structures.


motor

→ Persian: موتر (môtar)

→ Japanese: モーター (mōtā)

→ Korean: 모터 (moteo)

→ Burmese: မော်တော် (mautau)

→ Hausa: mōtā̀

→ Isoko: omoto

→ Nupe: mátò

→ Yoruba: mọ́tò

→ Shanghainese: 馬達 /马达 (mo⁶-da⁶)

→ Chinese: 馬達 /马达 (mǎ dá)

→ Tibetan: མོ་ཊ (mo ṭa)

From Middle English motour (“controller, prime mover; God”), from Latin mōtor (“mover; that which moves something”), from mōtō (“I set in motion”).

der

Nice motor!

Motor insurance is expensive for youngsters.

It was flood-tide along Fifth Avenue; motor, brougham, and victoria swept by on the glittering current; pretty women glanced out from limousine and tonneau; young men of his own type, silk-hatted, frock-coated, the crooks of their walking sticks tucked up under their left arms, passed on the Park side.

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “His Own People”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 6:

Every since the age of six Troy Belknap of New York had embarked for Europe every June on the fastest steamer of one of the most expensive lines. With his family he had descended at the dock from a large noiseless motor, had kissed his father good-bye, turned back to shake hands with the chauffeur (a particular friend), and trotted up the gang-plank behind his mother's maid, [...]

1918, Edith Wharton, chapter I, in The Marne, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 1:

'However, you go and try your luck and see how you like it.' With that he flung himself into his motor and was off.

1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed:

The screeching of brakes, the monotonous blare of motor horns, the clip-clip of shoes on slippery pavements, the rustling of wet mackintoshes were all part of the great metropolis.

1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XXII, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 214:

Goods motors for which "A" licences are held are free to operate anywhere, to pick up the most remunerative traffic, and the points between which the best back loads are available.

1944 November and December, T. F. Cameron, “Motor and Cartage Working”, in Railway Magazine, page 338:

(now colloquial outside attributive use) A motor car, or automobile, sometimes extended to other powered vehicles, such as goods vehicles.

motorrijtuig

colloquial: motor car — see also automobile


hopper

From Middle English hoppere, alteration of *hoppe (found in grashoppe (“grasshopper”)), from Old English *hoppa (“one who hops, hopper”), equivalent to hop + -er. Cognate with Dutch hopper (“hopper”), Swedish hoppare (“hopper, jumper”), Icelandic hoppari (“hopper”).


lorry

lorries (plural)
larry (alternative)
lorrie (alternative)

→ Central Dusun: luri

→ Chichewa: lore

→ Hausa: lori

→ Iban: lori

→ Juba Arabic: lori

→ Malay: lori (“heavy truck”)

→ Tausug: lūri

→ Chinese: 羅里 (luólǐ), 羅厘 /罗厘 (luólí)

→ Chichewa: lore

→ Farefare: loore

→ German: Lore

→ Irish: leoraí

→ Malay: lori

→ Moore: lore

→ Scottish Gaelic: làraidh

→ Swahili: lori

→ Telugu: లారీ (lārī)

→ Welsh: lorri, lori

→ Zulu: iloli

Uncertain; perhaps from dialectal English lurry (“to lug or pull about, drag”), or from the forename Laurie. First attested in early to middle 19th century.

cog

But whenever one of the motor-trucks lumbering by bore a big U.S. on its rear panel Troy pushed his light ambulance ahead and skimmed past, just for the joy of seeing the fresh young heads rising pyramid-wise about the sides of the lorry, hearing the snatches of familiar songs—"Hail, hail, the gang's all here!" and "We won't come back till it's over over here!"—and shouting back in reply to a stentorian "Hi, kid, beat it!", "Bet your life I will, old man!"

1918, Edith Wharton, chapter IX, in The Marne, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, pages 87–88:

The railway is still vital to Jordan's export trade, but in spite of the poor quality of the road, diesel lorries are gradually robbing it of freight traffic, and anyone who can afford to fly does so rather than face the long desert journey by rail.

1956 March, R. C. Blaker, “The Hedjaz Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 167:

The most frequent age for starting in the actual occupation of lorry driving is 17 years. Trampers tend to start later, the mode amongst them being 19 years. The mean average age for beginning in lorry driving in the sample is between 21 and 23 years. The mean average number of years spent in lorry driving varies according to the type of driver.

1968, Peter G. Hollowell, “The Lorry Driver’s Career”, in The Lorry Driver (The International Library of Sociology; 154), London: Routledge and Kegan Paul; New York, N.Y.: Humanities Press, →OCLC; republished Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, 1998 (2007 printing), →ISBN, page 61:

Until the main road from Hatfield to Hertford was diverted a few years ago, heavy lorries trundling through the village sometimes knocked chunks off corner buildings, but now the village has regained much of its former tranquillity.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 224, about Hertingfordbury:

Our journey through the streets of Singapore awoke strange emotions. Very little of the structural damage seemed to have been repaired beyond make-shift patchwork. The streets had a dingy and forlorn look. We arrived outside the British American Tobacco building and had our first experience of the shouting and hustlings that accompanied all Japanese supervision of our movements. We were shouted at to get out of the lorry with our baggage and make out way into the building.

1987, Richard Pool, “Prisoner of War”, in Course for Disaster: From Scapa Flow to the River Kwai, London: Leo Cooper, Heinemann, →ISBN, page 164:

The plantain lorry caught up with them in a blind curve. Jeff caught a glimpse of the driver's face in the mirror as he fought to swing the old truck out around the car. At that moment Jeff heard the sound of the horn of a vehicle coming up the road. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the old lorry beside him; its driver desperately trying to avoid the passenger lorry coming up the scarp.

2003, John C. Kennedy, “The Child”, in Last Lorry to Mbordo: Misadventures in Nation Building: A Novel, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 176:

At the platform in Pathankot, they must have overheard me asking the porter handling my luggage that I wanted to go to the lorry stand for Kashmir. [...] There were no buses then, some primitive contraptions called lorries. A far cry from the spacious and comfortable buses of the present day. They were not only rudimentary and crude, they also travelled very slow.

2005, Nagindra Mohan Kachroo, “Nostalgic Home Fires”, in Moments of Melancholy: (A Basket of Short Stories), New Delhi: S. B. Nangia, A. P. H. Publishing Corporation, →ISBN, page 129:

I know I swing me Volvo all around you market square. I know you think that lorry drivers, we just don't care. But the streets are so narrow, built so many years ago. They were built for horses' carts, not juggernauts you know.

2019, “I love my juggernaut”, in The Pothole Song Album, performed by Richie Kavanagh:

There was also the influx of a third of a million road lorries, sold at giveaway prices after their war roles ceased and used by competing one-man businesses to skim off sundry agricultural freight.

2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 51:

(British, Ireland, South Asia, Africa) A large and heavy motor vehicle designed to carry goods or soldiers; a truck


hovercraft

en-noun

hovercraft (plural hovercrafts or hovercraft)

hovercrafts (plural)
hovercraft (plural)

From hover + -craft. Originally a trademark by Saunders-Roe Limited, a British aero- and marine-engineering company.

The snapshot shows the whale parallel above the water almost as if it’s competing in belly-flop contest, doing a midair plank or floating across the bay like a hovercraft.

2022 July 24, Morgan Krakow, “It began as a typical ferry ride in Kachemak Bay. Then a minke whale went airborne.”, in Anchorage Daily News:

genericized trademark
genericized trademark

(vehicles, genericized trademark) A vehicle supported on a cushion of air, able to traverse many different types of terrain and travel over water, used for transport.


coop

en-verb

coop (third-person singular simple present coops, present participle cooping, simple past and past participle cooped)

coops (present singular third-person)
cooping (participle present)
cooped (participle past)
cooped (past)

Dutch Bantam
Marshall, Texas
Oxford English Dictionary
coop

From Middle English cǒupe, cupe, from Old English cȳpe (“basket, cask”) or possibly from Middle Dutch cûpe (compare modern Dutch kuip, Saterland Frisian kupe, Middle Low German kûpe), from Old Saxon *kûpa, côpa (“cask”) (compare Middle Low German kôpe, Old High German chôfa, chuofa, Middle High German kuofe, modern regional German Kufe f (“cask”)), probably from Latin cūpa, Medieval Latin cōpa (“cask”) (thus a doublet of coupe, cup, and keeve). However, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that if the word is from Latin, “it is difficult to account for the umlaut in Old English cýpe”.

COOPING. The term cooping refers to police officers sleeping on duty. […] One critic of two-man squad cars suggests that this is a recipe for cooping, since one officer can drive while the other sleeps.

2001, Mitchel P. Roth, Historical Dictionary of Law Enforcement, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, pages 76–77:

One of his first, and most groundbreaking, stories was about "cooping," police slang for sleeping on duty. It was sparked when Burnham interviewed Jim Curran, then a New York City policeman, who referred to someone being "in the coop," Burnham recalled. […] Burnham heard that every day thousands upon thousands of New York police supposedly working the night shift were actually sleeping, stashed in coops all over the city, only to be awakened if a crime was discovered. […] Cooping was a natural result and a dramatic example of a city agency misusing its resources.

2010, Bill Kovach, Tom Rosenstiel, Blur: How to Know What's True in the Age of Information Overload, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury USA, →ISBN, page 155:

The majority of policemen, […] act so as to save the public from harm, i.e., they shun their duties. Instead of being up and about, interfering with the rights of the people, many policemen choose the honorable way out—they coop. Cooping (sleeping in some out-of-the-way place while on duty) was a situation which enraged [Frank] Serpico. In the finest tradition of the busybody who insists on running other people's lives, Serpico insisted on being out on the streets at all hours, stopping a prostitute here, ambushing a gambler there, harassing drug merchants everywhere.

2012, Walter Block, Defending the Undefendable: The Pimp, Prostitute, Scab, Slumlord, Libeler, Moneylender, and Other Scapegoats in the Rogue's Gallery of American Society, Baltimore, Md.: Laissez Faire Books, →ISBN:

This cynicism may lead to an increased number of job actions and deviance, such as the "blue flu" or "cooping."

2012, Jeffrey Ian Ross, Policing Issues: Challenges and Controversies, Sudbury, Mass.: Jones & Bartlett Learning, →ISBN, page 66:

Cooping-prone areas are those locations where officers tend to engage in non-police activities that interrupt patrols in an unauthorized manner. A variety of such locations can be surmised, such as spending time at home or other locations not in the officer's area of responsibility while on duty. The department provided the example of officers parking in desolate areas to sleep.

2015, Steven V. Gilbert, Barbara A. Gilbert, Police Corruption in the NYPD: From Knapp to Mollen, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, pages 116–117:

(intransitive, law enforcement, slang) Of a police officer: to sleep or relax while on duty.


wagon

wagons (plural)
wagan (alternative)
waghen (alternative)
waggon (alternative British dated)

→ Dutch: wagon

→ French: wagon (see there for further descendants)

→ German: Waggon

→ Japanese: わごん, ワゴン (wagon)

→ Polish: wagon

→ Spanish: vagón

Borrowed from Middle Dutch wagen, from Old Dutch *wagan, from Proto-West Germanic *wagn, from Proto-Germanic *wagnaz (“wagon”), from Proto-Indo-European *woǵʰnos (“wagon, primitive carriage”), from *weǵʰ- (“to transport”). Doublet of wain. Related also to way, weigh.
Sense 8 (“woman of loose morals; obnoxious woman”) is probably a derogatory and jocular reference to a woman being “ridden”, that is, mounted for the purpose of sexual intercourse.
The verb is derived from the noun.

wa

four-wheeled cart for hauling loads — see also cart

Various methods have been suggested for effecting this transfer by a bodily removal of whole wagons; either by lifting the bodies from one set of wheels to another, or transferring the wagons, wheels and all, to some kind of truck; but practically these projects wholly fail. […] It is calculated that to bring a train of fifty wagons under the machine, one by one, a horse would have to traverse five miles and a half.

1846, Thornton [Leigh] Hunt, Unity of the Iron Network: Showing how the Last Argument for the Break of Gauge, Competition, is at Variance with the True Interests of the Public, 2nd edition, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 6:

The total weight of goods and minerals loaded into wagons on the railways of the United Kingdom during the year 1913, the last complete period of working under normal conditions before the outbreak of war, was 372,037,000 tons, of which 299,129,000 tons, or 80.41 per cent., consisting of coal and minerals.

1918 June 21, H. Kelway-Bamber, “Coal and Mineral Traffic on the Railways of the United Kingdom”, in The Engineer, volume CXXV, number 3260, London: Office for publication and advertisements, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 546, column 2:

(rail transport) A vehicle (wagon) designed to transport goods or people on railway.


ute

Clipping of utility vehicle, originating from the 1930s term coupé utility

The Reverend John Flynn, a man of simple tastes, was always recognisable in the outback, dressed in a suit, driving an old ute and puffing on a pipe.

2007, Sheryl Persson, The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, Australia: Exisle Publishing, →ISBN, page 40:

Still, given the choice between being stuck behind a ute in tropical scenery and spending four to five hours driving through stretches of semi-desert, I′d rather have the ute-plus-heart-attack.

2008, Penelope Adams, Why Women Are Stupid, Lulu, →ISBN, page 105:

A sample body was made in 1933 and the first utilities, or ‘utes’, rolled off the production line next year. Dubbed ‘the Kangaroo Chaser’ by Henry Ford when Bandt displayed two examples in Detroit, United States of America, in 1935, the ute was quickly recognised as the ideal farmers' vehicle.

2009, Damian Veltri, “Bandt, Louis (Lewis) Thornett (1910–1987)”, in Dianne Lingmore, Darryl Bennet, editors, Australian Dictionary of Biography, volume 17 1981–1990: A–K, →ISBN, page 55:

Paramedics rushed Melissa Dennis to the Royal Adelaide hospital with serious injuries after she was hit by a ute at Medindie on Saturday night.

2023 December 31, Matthew Weaver, “Rohan Dennis charged over death of wife, fellow cyclist Melissa Dennis”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(Australia, New Zealand, automotive) A small vehicle based on the same platform as a family car but with a unibody construction and a built-in open tray area for carrying goods; similar but not identical to a pick-up truck.

皮卡車 /皮卡车

small vehicle with a built-in open tray area for carrying goods


hackney cab

hackney cabs (plural)
hack cab (alternative)

hackney carriage
hackney carriage#English

(chiefly UK) Synonym of hackney carriage, (historical) a carriage pulled by a hackney horse or a motorized vehicle available for public hire.


palanquin

palanquins (plural)
palankin (alternative)
palankeen (alternative)
palanchin (alternative)
palanchine (alternative)
palanchino (alternative)
pallanchine (alternative)
pallankin (alternative)
palakin (alternative)
palamkeen (alternative)
palamkeene (alternative)
palamkin (alternative)
palankine (alternative)
palanquine (alternative)
pallaquin (alternative)
pallenkine (alternative)
pollankan (alternative)
palanqueen (alternative)
palenkeen (alternative)
pallankeen (alternative)
pallanquin (alternative)
palenqueen (alternative)
pallenkeen (alternative)
palinquin (alternative)
palanka (alternative)
palanke (alternative)
palankee (alternative)
palanque (alternative)
palanquy (alternative)

Czech: palankin

Danish: palankin

Polish: palankin

From Portuguese palanquim (“Asian litter, litter-bearer”), from Odia ପାଲଙ୍କି (pālaṅki, “litter”), ultimately from Sanskrit पल्यङ्क (palyaṅka), variant of पर्यङ्क (paryaṅka, “bed, couch, litter”). Doublet of palki.

bor

... but the cars of chaste women have either coverings thrown over them, or white sheets hung over; for instance, on the cars of the female part of the family of the deceased Nawabs Khanduran and Muzaffar Khan, there used generally to be fastened thick dirty white cloths, and in like manner also on their palanquins—although one brother was the chief treasurer, and the other a commander of seven thousand men. And most assuredly this is a requirement of modesty; for one whose palanquin or cart is turned out with much splendour, verily the idea comes to the minds of the sight-seers and common people, that in it there must be some lovely one, bright as the morning, the envy of the fairies. Hence, for the cars or palanquins for women to ride in to be greatly embroidered is, in the opinion of certain men of standing, who are worthy to be trusted, of great infamy.

1871, Sher Ali Afsos, translated by Henry Court, The Araish-i-Mahfil, or, The Ornament of the Assembly, page 31:

Behold his bed which is Solomon's. 'His bed' מִטָּתוֹ (mittatho)... The word here is generally understood to denote a palanquin or litter. Same as the 'chariot' in verse ninth... A royal bridal chariot or palanquin... A portable bed... A palanquin, sedan, or portable vehicle, in which Kings in the East used to be carried when on a long journey...

1892, "Notes", "Homiletic Commentary on The Song of Solomon", The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary on the Old Testament..., p. 142

This kogoshi, the simplest form of koshi palanquin, consists of a base with a raised railing and no roof.

1991, Matthew Eynon, Palanquins, Procreative Power, and Politics: Case Studies of Nepal, Taiwan, and Japan, p. 316

... the fan-bearer shows that the bearers are those of the king's palanquin ...

1992, Jocelyn Gohary et al., Akhenaten's Sed-Festival at Karnak, page 127:

In his records, La Loubere, Franch^([sic – meaning French]) Ambassador to Thailand in the reign of King Narai, described the appearance of the royal palanquin in Ayutthaya. It should be noted that the palanquin he mentioned as having 4 to 8 porters were small and not too heavy. They were probably palanquin for the king, members of the royal family or noblemen and were used to attend unimportant ceremonies.

1993, “Royal Palanquin”, in Heritage of Thai Culture, page 99:

In addition, there is enough space for a young boy to ride in the palanquin with the chief. This boy is believed to carry the souls of the ancestors and of the people which are enshrined in the stool... Since the Oath commemorates the loss of the palanquin, the Gbi Traditional Area decided not to procure another palanquin for the Fiagā in replacement. The Fiagā of Gbi, therefore, does not have a palanquin and must never ride in one...

2000, A. Kodzo Paaku Kludze, Chieftaincy in Ghana, pages 121-122:

(loosely) Synonym of litter, any similar vehicle open or closed, human or animal-borne, particularly (historical) in colonial Asian contexts.


moped

He was drunk again and moped, whining at length about his moped.

A lightweight, two-wheeled vehicle equipped with a small motor and pedals, designed to go no faster than some specified speed limit.


schooner

Attested ca. 1715, of uncertain origin. Said to be derived from dialectal scoon (“to skim over water”). Compare also shunt (“to cause to move (suddenly)”).

The night was considerably clearer than anybody on board her desired when the schooner Ventura headed for the land.

1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 6, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

Designed by Frank Payne's renowned Boston design office, and built in 1928 of longleaf yellow pine, this 82-footer has been a racing schooner — a staysail schooner — since the heyday of Class-A ocean racing in schooners during the late 1920s and early 1930s.

2004, Reese Palley, The Best of Nautical Quarterly: Volume 1: The Lure of Sail, page 181:

In addition to the square-rigged sailing ships, the schooners were the second largest group of large sailing vessels.

2005, Otmar Schäuffelen, Chapman: Great Sailing Ships of the World, page xxi:

Unfortunately, anyone looking for a schooner today has limited choices. In the used boat market there are always some wooden hulls available, and occasionally ones of steel or aluminum, but fiberglass-hulled schooners are harder to come by.

2007, Donald Launer, Lessons from My Good Old Boat, page 240:

(nautical) A sailing ship with two or more masts, all with fore-and-aft sails; if two masted, having a foremast and a mainmast.

Foaming schooners of beer grew ever larger and more numerous as the crimson February suns went to their rest.

a. 1964, Arthur Upfield, “Fozen Pumps”, in Kees de Hoog, editor, Up and Down Australia: Short Stories Selected by Kees de Hoog, published 2008, page 67:

And needless to say, the Western Australia row will eventually be filled in as well, though not before drinking a schooner of the amber nectar in Perth.

2004, Ken Ewell, Voyages of Discovery: A Manly Adventure in the Lands Down Under, page 94:

For a true Adelaide experience, head for the bar and order a schooner of Coopers, the local brew, or a glass of SA′s impressive wine.

2009, Charles Rawlings-Way, Meg Worby, Lindsay Brown, Paul Harding, Central Australia: Adelaide to Darwin, Lonely Planet, page 59:

(Australia) A glass of beer, of a size which varies between states (Wikipedia).

(historical) A covered wagon used by emigrants.


rocket

en-noun

rocket (countable and uncountable, plural rockets)

Borrowed from French roquette, from Italian ruchetta, diminutive of ruca, from Latin eruca. Cognate to arugula, rucola, eruca, roquette.

Rocket larkspur (Consolida regalis, syn. Delphinium consolida).


forklift

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-forklift.wav

A small industrial vehicle with a power-operated fork-like pronged platform that can be raised and lowered for insertion under a load, often on pallets, to be lifted and moved.


fire truck

fire trucks (plural)
firetruck (alternative)

(firefighting, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) A ladder truck, a vehicle used by firefighters to gain access to the upper stories of a building. Typically, a fire truck has a hydraulic system which operates a large, heavy-duty ladder mounted on top of the truck body, space for portable ladders to be stored and compartments for holding other tools that may be needed. Unlike a fire engine, trucks do not have pumps or carry water.


gill

From Middle English gille, gylle (“gill”), of North Germanic origin, akin to Danish gælle, Swedish gäl, Norwegian gjelle, and further to Old Norse gjǫlnar (“lips”), which also may have had the meaning of "gills" (based on Old Danish fiskegæln (“gills”)). The Old Norse word has been suggested as deriving from Proto-Germanic *gelunō (“jaw”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel-, which would make it root-cognate to Ancient Greek χελύνη (khelúnē, “lip, jaw”), χεῖλος (kheîlos, “lip”).
Displaced native Old English ċīe.

cog

Gill nets are designed to catch a fish by the gills.


gill

From Middle English gille, from Old French gille (“a wine measure”), from Medieval Latin gillo (“earthenware jar”).

der

(archaic, British) A measuring jug holding a quarter or half a pint.

(dated, US) A unit of measure equal to 4 US fluid ounces (half a cup, a quarter of a US pint), approximately 118 milliliters.


Popemobile

From pope + -mobile. Calque of Italian papamobile.

(informal) Any of various vehicles with bulletproof glass sides used to transport the Pope through crowds safely while allowing an open view.

pousmobiel

any of various vehicles with bulletproof glass sides used to transport the Pope


bolster

bolsters (plural)
boulster (alternative)
bowster (alternative Scotland)
bouster (alternative Scotland)
boster (alternative Scotland)

From Middle English bolster, bolstre, from Old English bolster (“pillow”), from Proto-West Germanic *bolstr, from Proto-Germanic *bulstraz (“pillow, cushion”). Cognate with Scots bowster (“bolster”), West Frisian bulster (“mattress”), Dutch bolster (“husk, shell”), German Polster (“bolster, pillow, pad”), Swedish bolster (“soft mattress, bolster”), Icelandic bólstur (“pillow”).

cog

(vehicles, agriculture) A small spacer located on top of the axle of horse-drawn wagons that gives the front wheels enough clearance to turn.


sledge

From Sledge (“a surname”), influenced by sledgehammer. First attested in the 1960s in Australian English.
According to Ian Chappell, originated in Adelaide during the 1963/4 or 1964/5 Sheffield Shield season. A cricketer who swore in the presence of a woman was taken to be as subtle as a sledgehammer (meaning unsubtle) and was called “Percy” or “Sledge”, from singer Percy Sledge (whose song When a Man Loves a Woman was a hit at the time). Directing insults or obscenities at the opposition team then became known as sledging.

Now that's what I call a sledge.

1990, Ashes: Battles and Bellylaughs, Byron Bay: Swan Publishing, page 173:

(chiefly cricket, Australia) An instance of sledging.

obrażać w celu odwrócenia uwagi

to verbally insult or abuse an opponent in order to distract them


stretcher

The jointed stretcher is used in place of the sectional bottom board, with two sideboards, one each side of stretcher. The boat set up this way only weights 20 pounds, and makes a very convenient boat for trout-fishing, duck-hunting, or exploring in ponds or streams where the paddle will do as well as the oars.

1884, J. W. Collins, Bulletin of the United States National Museum: Great International Fisheries Exhibition, page 703:

Directly the oar has been disengaged from the water, all pressure on the stretcher ceases, and the strain of the recovery of the body is eased by a slight pull with the feet on the straps of the stretcher.

1900, Alfred Edward Thomas Watson, The Young Sportsman, page 479:

Betwean each beam of the boat is also fastened a piece of timber called a stretcher or footspur, against which they place their feet when rowing, to enable them to have a more complete command of their oar.

1909, Samuel McSkimin, The History and Antiquities of the County of the Town of Carrickfergus, from the Earliest Records Till 1839, page 362:

Each rower's feet are set in shoes which are secured in the boat in a stretcher (or foot board) set into a fixed position to suit the length of the rower's legs.

2003, J. Alswang, The South African Dictionary of Sport, page 203:

[…] these seem to indicate a thwart, foot-timber (stretcher), thole-pin combination for rowing.

2014, Sean Mcgrail, Ancient Boats in North-West Europe, page 80:

(nautical) A board against which a rower places his feet.

jalkatuki

nautical: board against which a rower places his feet


wheelbarrow

en-verb

wheelbarrow (third-person singular simple present wheelbarrows, present participle wheelbarrowing, simple past and past participle wheelbarrowed)

wheelbarrows (present singular third-person)
wheelbarrowing (participle present)
wheelbarrowed (participle past)
wheelbarrowed (past)

/ˈʍiːl.bæɹ.əʊ/

General American, Mary–marry–merry merger

From Middle English whelbarwe; equivalent to wheel + barrow.

(transitive, aviation) To cause the weight of an aeroplane to become concentrated around the nosewheel.


crummy

en-adj

crummy (comparative crummier, superlative crummiest)

crummier (comparative)
crummiest (superlative)

Do not bother buying crummy knives if you are serious about cooking.

Whether it's a crummy hometown, a crummy job, or a crummy family, Bruce punctuates his songs with some oppressive tension. Early on in his work, oppression is nothing an open window, a fast car, a willing female, or a tank of gas couldn't fix.

2011, Randall E. Auxier, Douglas R. Anderson, Bruce Springsteen and Philosophy: Darkness on the Edge of Truth, Open Court, →ISBN, page 197:


crummy

(informal, British Columbia and Northwestern US) A small van, bus, or railway car used to transport loggers or other resource workers to and from the worksite.


convertible

convertible (comparative more convertible, superlative most convertible)

more convertible (comparative)
most convertible (superlative)

From Old French convertible, from Late Latin convertibilis (“interchangeable”), from Latin convertere (“to turn back, to turn over, to turn around, to turn upside down”), from con- (“with, together”) + vertere (“to turn”), + -ibilis (“-ible: able to”). Equivalent to convert + -ible.

der

Able to be turned into a different thing, especially

(vehicles) Able to change from a closed to an open frame and back again.


convertible

(vehicles) A convertible car: a car with a removable or foldable roof able to convert from a closed to open vehicle and back again.


landau

Named after the German city of Landau, where such carriages were first made. Compare German Landauer.

Indeed, as the two gentlemen reached the door, a landau drove up, a magnificent yellow carriage, lined with brocade or satin of a faint cream colour, drawn by wonderful grey horses, with flaming ribbons, and harness blazing all over with crests: no less than three of these heraldic emblems surmounted the coats-of-arms on the panels, and these shields contained a prodigious number of quarterings, betokening the antiquity and splendour of the house of Clavering and Snell.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 37, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

On an early winter afternoon, clear but not cold, when the vegetable world was a weird multitude of skeletons through whose ribs the sun shone freely, a gleaming landau came to a pause on the crest of a hill in Wessex.

1882, Thomas Hardy, chapter I, in Two on a Tower. A Romance. [...] In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 1:

Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do well to follow them, when up the lane came a neat little landau, the coachman with his coat only half buttoned, and his tie under his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of the buckles.

1891 June 25, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Adventure I.—A Scandal in Bohemia.”, in Geo[rge] Newnes, editor, The Strand Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly, volume II, London: George Newnes, Limited, […], published July 1891, →OCLC, page 68, column 2:

A type of lightweight, four-wheeled carriage in which the front and back passenger seats face each other.


panel van

panel vans (plural)
panelvan (alternative)

A large van without side windows or rear seats, with a chassis too big for a car; compare car-body van.

(Australia) A further development of the Australian ute, also based on a car chassis, and often highly decorated and fitted out for sleeping.


International

A make of truck and other vehicles formerly manufactured by International Harvester.


bankrupt cart

Said to be so called by a Lord Chief Justice, from their being so frequently used on Sunday jaunts by extravagant shopkeepers and tradesmen.

" No, no, I was too prudent when I was young to risk the expenses of a bankrupt cart, and now I am old I am too wise to attempt the difficult art of driving one."

1813, Harriet Corp, Cottage Sketches; Or, Active Retirement:

(obsolete, idiomatic) A one-horse chaise.


sulky

See sulk.
The horse-drawn vehicle is so called as it obliges the rider to be alone.

A low two-wheeled cart, used in harness racing.


fifth wheel

fifth wheels (plural)
5th wheel (alternative)

/ˌfɪfθ ˈʍiːl/

From the fact that since many vehicles such as carriages, coaches, wagons, prime movers, and trucks generally have four wheels on which they move, this component which resembles a wheel is the fifth.
* (anything superfluous or unnecessary): Sense 3 refers to the fact that a fifth wheel is not needed for a four-wheeled vehicle to operate.

nb...

􂀿...􂁀 Containing Complete Instructions in All the Different Branches of Carriage Building. Adapted to the Wants of Every Person Directly or Indirectly Connected with the Manufacture of Carriages. Written and Revised by Practical Men of Acknowledged Ability and Practical Experience in Their Several Departments.

refn

From “Platform Spring Carriage”, in The Coach-makers’ Illustrated Hand-book, […], 2nd edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: I[saac] D[elaney] Ware, […], 1875, →OCLC, part II (Blacksmith Department), page 126.

Fifth-wheel hitching is a simple affair compared to trailer coupling. Choose a quality hitch and don't overburden an inadequate pickup truck with a big fifth wheel and you're almost in business.

1997, Kim Baker, Sunny Baker, “Towing, Tow Vehicles, and Towed Vehicles”, in The RVer’s Bible: Everything You Need to Know about Choosing, Using, and Enjoying Your RV (A Fireside Book), New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, part II (The Mechanical Side of RVing), page 182:

Janet [Rosenstock] and Dennis [Adair] are avid travelers who venture to Europe now and again, and as full-time RVers travel through the United States and Canada. Look for them on the open road; their fifth wheel bears the sign "Read a Joyce Carlow lately?"

2000, Janet Rosenstock, Dennis Adair, “About the Author”, in The Fire, the Sword and the Devil, Lincoln, Neb.: toExcel, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 382:

(road transport) A type of trailer hitch, which consists of a horseshoe-shaped plate on a multidirectional pivot, with a locking pin to couple with the kingpin of a truck trailer.

In full, fifth-wheel trailer: a large caravan or travel trailer that is connected to a pickup truck for towing by a hitch similar to the one described in sense 1 located in the center of the truck's bed.


taxicab

taxicabs (plural)
taxi cab (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-taxicab.wav

Shortened from taximeter cab, equivalent to taxi + cab.

So now, stimulated by some further experience with that world which does not care a tinker's damn whether a verb agrees with its subject in number and person or not, she permitted the taxicab to jounce her smile out of all semblance to anything calmly superior and into a very unschoolmarmish grin.

1921, Harvey Wickham, “Introducing the Garden of Eden”, in The Clue of the Primrose Petal, New York, N.Y.: Edward J. Clode, page 9:

After that, the CGV "denumbered" a total of sixty taxicabs, that is, it removed them from the register of stationing taxicabs. The end of the CGV experiment is controversial, but it is certain that the behavior of the drivers (who, as we saw, were not directly salaried by CGV) was an important incentive to the denumbering of cabs: because of the high moyenne, they refused to accept customers for short trips and only accepted orders by the day or half-day.

Synonym of taxi, a vehicle available for public hire for single journeys, particularly one using a taximeter to automate fare calculation.


AV

autonomous vehicle
autonomous vehicle#English

(vehicles) Initialism of autonomous vehicle.


pantechnicon

en-noun

pantechnicon (plural pantechnicons or pantechnica)

pantechnicons (plural)
pantechnica (plural)

From Pantechnicon, a 19th-century firm which owned a building with a Greek-style facade of Doric columns in Motcomb Street, Belgrave Square, London, UK, with a picture gallery, a furniture shop, a shop selling carriages, and a warehouse for storing customers’ furniture and other items. The firm used large horse-drawn vans to collect and deliver their customers' property, which came to be known as Pantechnicon vans.
The word was coined by the firm from pan- (“all”) (from Ancient Greek πᾶν (pân), neuter form of πᾶς (pâs, “all, every”)) + τεχνικόν (tekhnikón), neuter singular of τεχνικός (tekhnikós, “technical”).

For we do not employ battleships as convoys, nor even as pantechnica conveying landing parties.

1899 October 28, The Outlook: A Weekly Review of Politics, Art, Literature and Finance, page 400:

The pantechnicon was running away. It had perceived the wrath to come and was fleeing. Its guardians had evidently left it imperfectly scotched or braked, and it had got loose. […] [T]he onrush of the pantechnicon constituted a clear crisis. Lower down the gradient of Brougham Street was more dangerous, and it was within the possibilities that people inhabiting the depths of the street might find themselves pitched out of bed by the sharp corner of a pantechnicon that was determined to be a pantechnicon.

1911, Arnold Bennett, The Card: A Story of Adventure in the Five Towns, London: Methuen Publishing, OCLC 492063506; republished Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, 1910s, OCLC 225424669, page 69

Not a day passes but some great pantechnica drive up to the door or drive down past my other window on the delivery road and drop off either £100,000 worth of Buddha or an early printed book, or a piece of furniture from a West African village.

1971, New Directions in Librarianship: Papers Read at the Week-end Conference of the London and Home Counties Branch of the Library Association, Held at Eastbourne, 30th April-2nd May, 1971, Under the Chairmanship of Derek Jones, Library Association, →ISBN, page 6:

In the Christian life we have a handicap. If we are encircled by the greatness of the past, we are also encircled by the handicap of our own sin. No man would seek to climb Mount Everest with a pantechnicon of lumber weighing him down. If we would travel far, we must travel light.

1972, William Barclay, “The Race and the Goal”, in The Letter to the Hebrews (The Daily Study Bible Series), rev. edition, Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, →ISBN, page 172:

On the 3rd of September 1939 I made my will, and since then I have discovered how happy is the state of having made a will. No pantechnica will now follow my hearse, I have taken leave of all the junk in time, perhaps only just in time.

a. 1977, E. C. Large, edited by Stuart Bailey and Robin Kinross, God’s Amateur: The Writing of E. C. Large, Hyphen Press, published 2008, →ISBN, page 69:

In fact, as they later found, the auxiliary vehicle was a very large removers' van – the kind known as a pantechnicon.

1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia: Or Buried Alive: A Novel, London: Faber and Faber; republished in The Avignon Quintet: Monsieur, Livia, Constance, Sebastian, Quinx, London: Faber and Faber, 1992, page 426

I later established that the R12 [Renault 12] and pantechnicon had both been driving in the direction of the roadblock, the R12 behind the pantechnicon.

2008, Anthony Trethowan, “Wendy Atkinson”, in Delta Scout: Ground Coverage Operator, Johannesburg: 30° South Publishers, →ISBN, page 30:

[…] Bulstrode v Lambert [1953] 1 WLR 1064 […] [T]he plaintiff made use of the route with furniture vans and pantechnicons for bringing goods to the mart. The defendant objected on the ground that the parked pantechnicons interfered with his business as a cafe and car hire proprietor, but Upjohn J held that the plaintiff could use the way with pantechnicons which could park as long as was necessary for loading and unloading, this being an incident of a right of way.

2009, E[dward] H[ector] Burn, J[ohn] Cartwright, “Adverse Possession and Limitation of Actions”, in Maudsley and Burn's Land Law: Cases & Materials, 9th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 291–292:

Shinkfield's had at one time belonged to a firm called Hutchison's which did furniture removals. They stabled their horses and pantechnicon in the yard which runs behind the Lord Palmerston and the adjoining shops, with access from North Cross Road.

2010, John D. Beasley, “What a Lot of Shops and Stalls!”, in East Dulwich Remembered, Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing, →ISBN:

(chiefly British) Originally pantechnicon van: a van, especially a large moving or removal van.


tuk-tuk

From Thai ตุ๊ก ๆ (dtúk-dtúk), onomatopoeic for the sound of its two-stroke engine.

Photographs containing blurry night shots from Kao San Road, as well as one where a tuk tuk almost hits an elephant.

2012, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge, page 17:

A motorized rickshaw, especially Southeast Asia or India.


quad bike

From quad (“four (“4”)”) + bike (“bicycle”).
From being a 4-wheeled quadricycle vehicle that is ridden astride like a dirt bike (“motorcycle”).

A small off-road four-wheeled powered vehicle, especially of a design derived from a motorcycle, usually used for recreation or farm work.