Cabdriver is a compound of cab + driver; cab is shortened from cabriolet (a light carriage), from French cabriolet, from cabrioler ('to leap'), from Italian capriola ('a leap'), from Latin capra ('goat'). The historical trail runs through cabriolet in French and capra in Latin. Morphologically, cabdriver is transparent: it is a compound of cab + driver. Used as a noun, cabdriver now means "a person who drives a taxicab for hire", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in related forms such as cab, driver, and cabdriving. The result is a borrowed or transmitted form whose modern spelling carries a compact record of its route into English.