chauffeur

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a person employed to drive a private or luxury passenger vehicle

   A chauffeur met the guests at the station and drove them to the hotel.

2. 2
   verb

   to drive someone in a car, especially as a paid or personal driver

   She was chauffeured between the airport and the conference center.

Simplified etymology

Chauffeur is a French word that literally means “stoker,” from chauffer, “to heat.” It was applied to early motorists because some early cars were steam-driven and required someone to tend the heat source.

Borrowed in the 1890s from French chauffeur, literally "stoker," from chauffer ("to heat"). Early motorists had to tend the heat or steam machinery of their vehicles; the word soon narrowed to a professional driver.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary