cabriolet

Etymology

It is borrowed from French cabriolet,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} recorded in French from 1755 for a light hooded carriage, and so called from its bounding motion.^[2][8][4][5] The American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Unabridged take it as a diminutive of cabriole (“a leap, caper”),^[3][4] while the OED and Hoad derive it from the verb cabrioler (“to leap, bound”).^[2][7] The French words go back to Italian capriola (“a caper”),^[3][7] from capriolo (“roebuck”),^[3] from Latin capreolus, a diminutive of caprea (“roe deer”), from caper (“he-goat”).^[3][9] Klein compares Ancient Greek κάπρος (kápros, “boar”), Old English hæfer and Old Norse hafr.^[9] It is the source of cab.^[10][11][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A light two-wheeled chaise with a large folding hood, drawn by one horse: 1760, in a translation of Taciturna & Jocunda.^[2] Etymonline's entry for cab gives 1763 and its entry for the word itself 1766,^[5] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged 1770;^[4] the OED also records the shortened cabriole for the same vehicle from 1756.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The carriage was popular in Italy and France, where it was for hire, and it was introduced into London in 1820.^[10] The Times of 15 April 1823 announced that cabriolets were about to be established there at half the fare of hackney coaches.^[12] Londoners shortened the name, and cab was established by 1827.^[10][5] The vehicle's hood gave its name to a kind of bonnet, recorded in French from before 1763 and in English from 1797,^[2] and its seat probably to a small armchair with curved legs, used in English from 1769 to 1781.^[2] Etymonline dates a use for a curved furniture leg to 1854, from the likeness to the leg of a leaping animal.^[5] In French contexts the word also named the hooded top of a stagecoach, from 1815 to 1889.^[2] With the coming of the motor car, the name passed to a car with a folding roof, in 1896 according to the OED,^[2] though the Shorter Oxford has it only in the early 20th century.^[6]

Timeline

• 1760 – a light two-wheeled, one-horse chaise with a folding hood.^[2]
• 1769 – a small armchair with cabriole legs (obsolete by 1781).^[2]
• 1797 – a bonnet resembling the hood of the carriage.^[2]
• 1815 – in French contexts, the hooded top of a stagecoach (obsolete by 1889).^[2]
• 1854 – a curved furniture leg.^[5]
• 1896 – a motor car with a folding or removable roof.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A motor car with a folding or removable roof; a convertible.^[13][4][2]
2. A light two-wheeled carriage drawn by one horse, with a folding hood.^[13][4][2]
3. A bonnet or hat with a brim framing the face, shaped like the hood of this carriage.^[2][6]

Word family

• cab

Related words

• cabriole
• capriole
• caper
• Capricorn
• chevron

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins