landau

Etymology

It is named from German Landau, the town in Germany where the carriage was first made,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} in Bavaria according to Etymonline, Merriam-Webster and Collins,^[6][3][7] near Karlsruhe according to the Oxford Dictionary of English.^[8] The carriage is called landauer in German, short for landauer wagen.^[2][9][10] Dictionary.com calls the derivation from the town only probable.^[11] Klein rejected it: for him the word is really Spanish lando, originally a light four-wheeled carriage drawn by mules, from an Arabic word whose article was misread, traced in turn to an Old Indian word for a swing or litter.^[12] Etymonline reports his view.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A four-wheeled carriage with a top in two parts that can be closed or opened: 1743, in a record quoted in J. Strang's Glasgow.^[2][13][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also gives 1743,^[3] and Dictionary.com dates it to 1735–45.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word named a two-seated carriage whose rear hood folds back while the front part can be taken off.^[14][2] Webster (1828) described it as a coach whose top can be opened and thrown back.^[15] An American horse-keeping guide of 1859 complained that landaus were complex and liable to get out of order, which kept them from popular use.^[6] Like coupe, brougham and phaeton, the carriage name passed to motor cars:^[16] before 1934 it was used of an automobile with a similar top,^[4] and Merriam-Webster defines it also as a closed car body whose rear quarter can be opened or folded.^[3] The Shorter Oxford now labels the carriage chiefly historical.^[5] The diminutive landaulet dates from the 18th century.^[9]

Timeline

• 1743 – a four-wheeled carriage with a top that opens in two parts.^[2][3][4]
• before 1934 – an automobile with a top like that of the carriage.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A four-wheeled, usually horse-drawn carriage with a top in two parts, front and back, that can be folded back or removed so it can travel open or closed.^[3][7][5]
2. A closed automobile whose rear part of the roof can be opened or folded down.^[3][4]

Word family

• landaulet

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
14. ^ Whitney, William Dwight, ed. (1889–1891), The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, New York: The Century Co. (1901 printing)
15. ^ Webster, Noah (1828), An American Dictionary of the English Language, New York: S. Converse
16. ^ Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster