also motor-car, "horseless carriage, wheeled vehicle which carries its own propelling mechanism," 1895 from motor (n.) + car.
Entries linking to motorcar
motor n.
"one who or that which imparts motion," mid-15c., "controller, prime mover (in reference to God);" from Late Latin motor, literally "mover," agent noun from past-participle stem of Latin movere "to move" (from PIE root *meue- "to push away"). Sense of "agent or force that produces mechanical motion" is first recorded 1660s; that of "machine that supplies motive power" is from 1856. Motor-home is by 1966. Motor-scooter is from 1919. First record of slang motor-mouth "fast-talking person" is from 1970.
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." The Celtic-Latin word also made it into Greek, as karron "wagon with four wheels."
"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 streetcars or tramway cars. The extension to "automobile" is by 1896, but between 1831 to the first decade of 20c. the cars meant "railroad train." Car bomb is attested from 1972, in a Northern Ireland context. The Latin word also is the source of Italian and Spanish carro, French char.
