Etymologically
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chassis

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈt͡ʃæ.si/, /ˈʃæ.si/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French châssis (“frame”),[2][3][4][5][6][7] from Old French chassiz (“frame, framework, setting”),[6][4][3] from chasse (“case, box, setting”),[6][5] from Latin capsa (“box, case”),[6][5][3][4][7][8] the source of case in the sense of a box.[5][8][9] The American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster give an intermediate Vulgar Latin *capsīcium,[3][4][7] and the OED compares the suffix with -īcius, -iccio and -izo;[2] Barnhart and Etymonline instead explain it as a collective suffix -is for a number of parts taken together.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A window frame or sash: Barnhart dates it to 1664, in the works of John Evelyn,[5][10] Etymonline to the 1660s,[6] and the OED to 1691, in Evelyn's Kalendarium Hortense, in the sense of a wooden frame fitted with paper, linen or glass.[2]

Semantic evolution

The early borrowing in the sense of a window frame was altered in English to shashes, taken as a plural, from which the singular sash2 was formed; that sense of chassis itself was obsolete by the early 18th century.[2][9][6][7] The word was borrowed again in the 19th century:[9] in 1869 for the sliding base-frame on which a heavy gun was mounted,[2][6][11] and in 1903, in American English, for the base frame of a motor car with its machinery, as distinct from the body.[2][6][5] In 1931 it was extended to the frame on which the parts of a radio set are mounted.[2] Slang compared a person's body, especially a woman's figure, to a car's chassis: Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes the 1925 song If You Knew Susie, the OED first records it in Wodehouse in 1930.[12][2]

Timeline

  • 1664 – a window frame, sash.[5]
  • 1691 – a wooden frame fitted with paper, linen or glass (obsolete by 1711).[2][4]
  • 1869 – the sliding base-frame of a gun carriage.[2][6]
  • 1903 – the base frame of a motor car with its mechanism.[2][6][5]
  • 1925 – in slang, a woman's figure.[12]
  • 1931 – the frame of a radio set.[2]
  • 1934 – a stretcher for a painter's canvas.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The supporting frame of a motor vehicle, with its wheels and machinery, to which the body is fitted.[13][4][2][14]
  2. The frame on which the parts of a radio, television or other electronic device are mounted.[13][2][14]
  3. The landing gear of an aircraft.[13][15]
  4. The sliding frame on which the carriage of a cannon moves backwards and forwards.[13][15][2]
  5. (slang) A person's body, especially a woman's figure.[13][2][12]
  6. (obsolete, 1691–1711) A wooden frame for a window or screen; a sash2.[2][13][4]

Usage notes

The plural is spelt the same as the singular but pronounced with a final /z/: /ˈʃæsiz/.[13][16] In American English the first sound may be /tʃ/ or /ʃ/, while British English has /ʃ/.[16]

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 r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ a b Webster's New World College Dictionary (2014), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  16. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press