英文词源
- car
- car: [14] Car seems first to have been used as an independent term for a road vehicle powered by an internal-combustion engine in 1896, in the publication Farman’s Auto-Cars (the compounds autocar and motorcar are a year earlier). But the word is of course of far longer standing as a general term for a wheeled conveyance. It comes ultimately from an unrecorded Celtic *karros, via Latin carrus ‘two-wheeled wagon’, Vulgar Latin *carra, and Anglo-Norman carre or car; it is probably linked with current and course, giving an underlying meaning ‘move swiftly’.
English words derived at some point or other from the same source include career, carriage, carry, charge, and chariot.
=> career, caricature, carriage, carry, charge, chariot, course, current - car (n.)
- c. 1300, "wheeled vehicle," from Anglo-French carre, Old North French carre, from Vulgar Latin *carra, related to Latin carrum, carrus (plural carra), originally "two-wheeled Celtic war chariot," from Gaulish karros, a Celtic word (compare Old Irish and Welsh carr "cart, wagon," Breton karr "chariot"), from PIE *krsos, from root *kers- "to run" (see current (adj.)).
"From 16th to 19th c. chiefly poetic, with associations of dignity, solemnity, or splendour ..." [OED]. Used in U.S. by 1826 of railway freight carriages and of passenger coaches on a railway by 1830; by 1862 of a streetcar or tramway car. Extension to "automobile" is by 1896, but from 1831 to the first decade of 20c. the cars meant "railroad train." Car bomb first 1972, in reference to Northern Ireland. The Latin word also is the source of Italian and Spanish carro, French char.
中文词源
car：汽车
来自词根cur, 跑，词源同current, chariot。
该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：car 词源，car 含义。
car：汽车
car源于凯尔特语中的一个词，这个词在凯撒大帝听来就像karra。于是他就把两轮战车和马车称作karra。以后karra拉丁化为carra／carrus。car（一度作carre）约在1300年首次出现于英语，是通过法语从拉丁语演化而来的，最初指运货马车或大车。到了19世纪中期car只是在诗中作为chariot（战车）的同义词用。19世纪末期英国英语用motorcar 一词来指“汽车”，但是没过多久该词就被缩略为car。英语的另一个词carriage（马车），究其根源也是出自拉丁语carrus，在作“火车客车厢”解时，如今也常以car作为其缩略形式。可见car是一个行将就木的词，现代科学技术使它重新获得了新生。与car，carriage同出一源的英语单词还有chariot（马拉战车），carry（运载），career（生涯），charge（负荷，装满）等。
附：car 小汽车，carpenter 木匠，carrier 运输工具，cargo 货物，career 职业 词源助记：car 在古代表示木质马车 pent 表示马车的车棚，carpenter 就是古时候为王宫贵族制造有棚子的木质马车的工匠。Carry 有携带传送的意思，car 表示木质马车，变 y 为 i 加 er 就成了运输工具。跟着马车一起走的就是货物（cargo）了。在古代等级非常森 严，不同的人乘坐的木质马车是不同的，不同的木质马车也就表示每个人不同的职业，所以 career 演化为职业。
car：车，汽车，车厢，吊厢，(古)战车，马车
来源于拉丁语名词carr.us(有轮子的车)。
-carr-车 → car车