Etymologically
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garage

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 12:32. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈɡæ.ɹɪdʒ/, /ˈɡæ.ɹɑːʒ/ (UK); /ɡəˈɹɑʒ/, /ɡəˈɹɑdʒ/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French garage (“a place for sheltering a vehicle”),[2][3][4] from garer (“to shelter, to dock”), from Old French garir (“to protect”),[3][2][5] from Frankish *warōn (“to guard”) or another Germanic source (compare Old High German warōn (“to take care”); see wary).[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A building for keeping motor vehicles: 1902, in a New York Athletic Club Journal notice calling it the French term for an automobile stable;[3][2][6] MWU has 1905.[4]

Semantic evolution

The AHD notes that French garage first meant a place where boats dock (1802) and took the sense of a shelter for vehicles in 1901, and that English borrowed it almost immediately.[7] A commercial establishment selling petrol and repairing cars is also from 1902.[6] A hangar for aircraft was a garage from 1909.[6] The verb, to put into a garage, is from 1906.[2][3] The garage sale is American from 1966,[6][3] the garage band, an amateur rock group, from 1977,[6] and garage as a style of dance music from 1987, named after the Paradise Garage club in New York.[6]

Timeline

  • 1902 – a shelter for cars.[2][6]
  • 1906 – the verb.[2][3]
  • 1966 – garage sale.[6][3]
  • 1977 – garage band.[6]
  • 1987 – garage music.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A building or part of a house for keeping a car or other vehicle.
  2. A place where vehicles are repaired, serviced or sold, often also selling fuel.
  3. A style of rock or dance music.

Verb

  1. To put or keep a vehicle in a garage.

Word family

  • garageable
  • garageman
  • garage band
  • garage sale

Usage notes

British pronunciations include /ˈɡærɑːʒ/ and /ˈɡærɪdʒ/, while American English stresses the second syllable, /ɡəˈrɑːʒ/.[8][9]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  8. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins