tugs (04/01/83)
I seem to recall that both "taxi" and "cab" are, at least in English, abbreviations of the word "taxicab" (this makes sense so far...). Is "taxicab" a further abbreviation? steve hull decvax!utcsrgv!tugs
guy (04/05/83)
"taxicab" is short for "taximeter cabriolet".
>From the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language:
taxicab - [TAXI(METER)+CAB]
taximeter [French "taximetre: "taxe", tax, charge, from Old French "taxer", to
TAX + -METER]
cab - 1. A taxicab (see). 2. A one-horse vehicle for public hire.
[Sense 1, short for TAXICAB; sense 2, short for CABRIOLET]
cabriolet - 1. A two-wheeled, one-horse carriage with two seats and a folding
top. 2. A coupelike automobile with a collapsible top; a convertible coupe.
[French, diminutive of "cabriole", caper (in allusion to its bounding motion),
from Old French, from Old Italian "capriola", from "capriolo", roebuck, from
Latin "capreolus", wild goat, chamois, from "caper", he-goat.]
I tried working on sense 1 of "cab" but I got
Memory fault - core dumped.
Guy Harris
RLG Corporation
{seismo,mcnc,we13}!rlgvax!guy