locomotive

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin locōmōtīvus, recorded from 1538 or earlier,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin locō (“from a place”), the ablative of locus (“place”), and Late Latin mōtīvus (“moving, causing motion”), the source of motive.^{[2][3][7][8][9]} The Latin adjective was suggested by the phrase Medieval Latin in locō movērī, to move by change of place, used in commentaries on Aristotle.^{[2][4][6][10]} Etymonline and Barnhart instead derive the English word borrowed from Middle French locomotif,^[8][11] but the OED dates the French word to 1583.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to locomotion, the power of moving from place to place: 1612, in William Sclater.^{[2][11][8][12]}

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the word was at first strictly an adjective,^[3] at first a philosophical term.^[10] From 1621 it described an animal able to move about by itself, from 1670 of an organ used in moving, and humorously of a person always travelling since 1732.^[2] By 1814 it meant "able to move by its own power",^[8] and locomotive engine, an engine that moves along rails under its own power, is recorded from 1814 or 1815.^[8][11] The noun, a railway engine, began as a shortening of locomotive engine and is first found in 1829.^{[2][8][11][12][3]} The figurative sense "driving force" follows in 1851.^[2] In 19th-century slang locomotives were a person's legs,^[2][13] and in the United States a locomotive was a college cheer from 1906.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as "changing place; having the power of removing or changing place".^[14]

Timeline

• 1612 – adjective, of or relating to locomotion.^[2][11][12]
• 1621 – of an animal, able to move from place to place.^[2]
• 1648 – of or relating to travel.^[2]
• 1670 – of an organ, used in locomotion.^[2]
• 1814 – locomotive engine, and the sense "self-propelled".^[8]
• 1829 – noun, a railway engine.^{[2][8][11][12]}
• 1836 – slang, in the plural, the legs (obsolete by 1870).^[2]
• 1851 – figurative, a driving force.^[2]
• 1906 – US, a cheer in which the sound of a train is imitated.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A self-propelled engine driven by steam, electricity or diesel power, used to pull trains along a railway: The locomotive pulled forty wagons of coal.^[15][12][2]
2. Something that drives a process forward; a driving force.^[2]

Adjective

1. Relating to locomotion, or used in moving from place to place.^[15][12][2]
2. Able to move by itself from place to place.^[15][12][2]

Word family

• locomotively
• locomotiveness
• unlocomotive
• locomotive engineer
• steam locomotive
• tank locomotive

Related words

• locomotion
• locus
• motive
• local
• move

References

1. ^ a b 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 s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins