car

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A road vehicle with four wheels and an engine, used to carry a small number of people.

   He drove his car to the theatre.

2. 2
   noun

   A separate section of a train.

   Three cars came off the rails in the accident.

3. 3
   noun

   The part of a lift or cable car in which people ride.

   The lift car stopped suddenly between two floors.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Car entered English in the early 14th century from Old French carre, from Latin carrus, meaning “two-wheeled vehicle” or “wagon,” probably of Celtic origin. It initially referred to carts and wagons; railway vehicles acquired the name in early 19th-century North America, and self-propelled road vehicles were called cars from the 1890s.

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.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary