Photo credit: Petr Dadák on Flickr
Buses, trains, planes, oh my - there's so many ways to get around! But how many of these words are descended from Latin or Greek? Do any have Germanic origins? Anything weird? Let's find out.
Road Vehicles
- Bus
- Shortening of omnibus, a Latin plural form of omnis (dative, ablative) meaning something like "for everyone."
- Van
- Shortening of caravan, from French caravane, from from Persian کاروان (karwan - caravan). A rare occurence of Persian etymology.
Light Rail
- Streetcar
- From street + car. Car is from from Old French carre (cart), from Latin carrus (cart, wagon). Interestingly, the Latin word is actually of Gaulish/Celtic origins. Street comes from Old English strǣt, which comes from Late Latin strata (via strata - paved road).
- Tram
- Merriam Webster says from Low German tram (beam), Oxford says from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch trame (beam or barrow shaft).
Tram comes from the word tramway, which originally described mining carts running on wooden rails. - Trolley
- Dialect word, possibly from troll (in the sense of fishing), from Middle English trollen (to roll), of unknown origin.
Heavy Rail
- Commuter rail
- Commute is from Latin commuto, commutare (to change, exchange). Rail is from Middle English rail, which is from Old French reille (iron rod), from Latin regula (ruler [the measuring device]).
- Metro
- From French métro, a shortening of métropolitain, from Greek μήτηρ (méter - mother) and πόλις (polis - city).
- Subway
- From sub + way, sub is directly from Latin and way comes from Old English weg. Half and half, I suppose?
- Train
- From Old French train (a delay, a drawing out), from trainer or trahiner (to pull out, to draw), from Latin traho, trahere (to pull, to draw).
Miscellany
- Airplane
- Air is from Middle English air, from Old French air, from Latin aer, from Greek ἀήρ (aer - air). Plane is from Latin planum (flat surface), the neuter version of the adjective planus. So, Greek and Latin combined.
- Ferry
- From Old English ferian, ferigean (to take, move, carry).
- Monorail
- Mono is from Greek μόνος (monos - alone), rail is from Latin. Another Greek and Latin combination.
So what does this tell us? That English is a bastard language, mostly. Many of the Latin words actually came to English through French, so we can blame them for all the non-Germanic vocabulary. Will this information ever come in use? I doubt it. Is it fun to learn about? Yeah. Now go impress your friends with some useless trivia. Any words I missed? Let me know.
Sources
Oxford English Dictionary - have an Apple device? The built in dictionary uses the OED.
Merriam Webster - free access
Wiktionary - free access, has other languages