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Names Of Vehicles

Names Of Vehicles image
Parent Issue
Day
17
Month
May
Year
1878
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Among the medley of namesat present or recently given to pleasure carriages some are unintelligible, while others defy all etyrnological serutiny. The landau is narned from a town in Germany; it is a coach that may be used open or closed at pleasure. The landaulet, as itsiiame implies, i a lighter and smaller landau. The barouche, a favorito open carriage in summer, is of French origin, as is the barouchet. The britzschka was introdnced from Bussia about half a century ago. Why the phaeton is so named we cannot pretend to say; but the vehicle so called bolongs to the barouche and britzschka group. The cabriolet is French, and so is the vis-a-vis. Droitzschka came from Bussia or Poland - an odd kind of an affair, modifled in England into a vehiele fitted for invalids, aged persons and children, with its formidable name shortened into drosky. The curricle is one of the few kinds of twowheelers with two horses abreast; while the tandem is a ttraggling affair with two wheels and two horses, but one of the horses behind the other. The cab (short for cabriolet) is a handy bachelor' s vehicle; the gig is about the lightest of all, being little more than an openrailed chair, supported on the shafts by two side springs; the dog-cart is a gig, with a space underneath to contain either dogs or luggage; while the tilbury, named after the coachman who invented it, is a modified cab. The stanhope, named after a noble lord, is another of the family of single-horse two-wheelers; and so is the sulky, for one person only; and so the buggy, and the jaunting-car, and the whisky. The dennet, we are told, has three springs peculiarly arranged, and "was so called because the three springs were named after the three Miss Dennets, whose elegant stagedancing was much in vogue about the time this vehicle carne into use." The French misanthrope, for one person, was probably the origin of our sulky. The Sy is a roomy carriage let out to hire; why it is so called is not quite clear. The French fiacre neither denotes a particular person nor a special origin; there iiappened to be a figure of St. Fiacre in the front of the building where the ïrst lender of these vehicles kept them. When we consider how readily the name lansom has come into use among us, as the designation for a vehicle, we need not marvel at the French having alopted fiacre. Victoria, clarence, brcuaam, are so many proofs of the ease with which the names of persons are given to

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus