odometer

Etymology

It is borrowed from French odomètre,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} which the OED dates to 1678 and Etymonline to 1724,^[2][3] from Koine Greek ὁδόμετρον (hodómetron) or ὁδόμετρος (hodómetros), an instrument for measuring distances by land or sea,^[2][5] formed from Ancient Greek ὁδός (hodós, “way, road”) and μέτρον (métron, “measure”).^[2][4][6][5] The Greek hodós, of uncertain origin, is also in exodus.^[3] The Shorter Oxford allows a direct English formation from the Greek and -meter,^[8] and Collins and Dictionary.com take it from the variant hodometer.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A measuring wheel that records the distance travelled: 1702, in a letter by A. Sharp printed in Flamsteed's correspondence, which tells of a newly made "measuring Wheel or Odometer".^[2] Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1791, in the writings of Thomas Jefferson, and Barnhart calls it American English.^[4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The first odometers were wheels pushed along the ground by a surveyor on foot, counting their own revolutions;^[2][5] the OED records the word for a pedometer as well, a sense now obsolete.^[2] The device for a wheeled vehicle is the sense Etymonline gives for 1791,^[3] and it is now the usual one: a meter that shows the distance a car or bicycle has travelled, often inside the speedometer.^[2][9][1] Collins marks the word as American and Canadian, where British English says mileometer.^[9]

Timeline

• 1702 – a measuring wheel recording distance travelled.^[2]
• 1791 – an instrument measuring the distance passed over by a wheeled vehicle, in Jefferson.^[3][4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An instrument in a vehicle that measures and shows the distance it has travelled: The odometer on the old truck had passed 300,000 miles.^{[11][12][5][9][2]}
2. A wheel used by surveyors that records the distance covered as it is pushed along the ground.^[5][2]

Word family

• odometry

Related words

• hodometer
• pedometer
• speedometer
• exodus
• meter

Usage notes

Collins labels the word chiefly American and Canadian; in British English the device is also called a mileometer.^[9] The spelling hodometer, closer to the Greek, is also recorded.^[8][13][9]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
12. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press