The word "car."

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Since cars were invented recently, I assume the name is either a new name, or derived from another language. Does anyone know? It just seems interesting to me that we just kind of had to make up a new word... I doubt one picked some random syllables.

Anyone?

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Well, SCoates, I was going to say that the word "car" came from es-CAR-go, because the early ones ran at a snail's pace. Razz

But, factual stuff is what you're looking for so here tis:

car - 1301, "wheeled vehicle," from Norm.-Fr. carre, from L. carrum, carrus (pl. carra), orig. "two-wheeled Celtic war chariot," from Gaul. karros, from PIE *krsos, from base *kers- "to run." Extension to "automobile" is 1896. Car-sick first recorded 1908, on model of sea sick. U.S. carport is from 1939. Car bomb first 1972, in reference to Northern Ireland. Car pool is 1942 (n.), 1962 (v.).

Boring, ain't it.

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i googled the question and this site came upWebpage Title

there are 2 suggestions but they seemed to agree on this one:

Actually, 'car' is older than 'carriage'! Spelt originally as 'carre' - and coming from the Late Latin word 'carra' - it first appeared in English in the 1300s. Carriage - spelt 'caryage' and coming from French - did not appear here until the 1500s. (The former, therefore, is not an abbreviation of the latter. Sorry,

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Quote:

Etymology: Middle English carre, from Anglo-French, from Latin carra, plural of carrum, alteration of carrus, of Celtic origin; akin to Old Irish & Middle Welsh carr vehicle; akin to Latin currere to run

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Quote:

As far as patents go, car always meant railroad car but along about 1904 automobile manufacturers started using "touring car" as a body style description.

That said, Word and Phrase Origins states that "the word car comes from a Celtic word that sounded like karra to Julius Caesar, who gave the name to his chariots. Karra later was Latinized to carra. Surprisingly, the word car appears first around 1300; carriage evolved from it, then horseless carriage, and, finally, back to car again as a shortened form."

Source

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And 'computer'?

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Rick d'Israeli wrote:

And 'computer'?

From Latin "computare" - a new "artifical" word creation.

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Thanks Walter Smile

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The word "car."

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