Have you ever wondered where we get some of these crazy terms in the car industry? Here’s a bit of history that may give you some insight as to how these terms came to be.
Car:
“Car” is a word derived from Celtic origin – originally karros, and seen in many other languages including Anglo-French (carre), Latin (carrum). When railroads were a popular form of transportation between 1831 to the first decade of the 20th century, “cars” were referred to the railroad train. “Car” eventually evolved into regular vocabulary as automobiles became more popular.
Vehicle:
First recorded in the 1600’s, vehicle derives from Latin vehiculum, which is defined as “means of transport, carriage, conveyance”. Vehicle was used in many different contexts throughout history, including in early medicine – “a medium in which a drug or medicine is administered”.
Transmission:
Also found as early as the 1600’s, originating from transmissionem in Latin, transmission is defined as “conveyance from one place to another” and “to send over or across”. The transmission in automobiles is what regulates and sends power from the engine to the axle.
Horsepower:
This word was coined by Scottish Engineer James Watts to compare the power of draft horses to the output of power from steam engines, and eventually was used in comparison with piston engines, electric motors, and more. During this time, the definition of horsepower was established as the power needed to lift and move 33,000lbs one foot in one minute – which is about 1.5 times the power of a strong draft horse.
Soup:
Have you ever heard of a “souped-up” engine? Going hand in hand with horsepower, soup was slang term in the 1920’s for medicines injected into horses to make them run faster. Nowadays, we soup up our engines to make them as fast as we want.
Torque:
Meaning “rotating force”, the term torque was originally derived from Latin torquere, which means “to twist, turn”. This word has been used outside of automobiles for a long time as both a verb, adjective, and noun – some recordings as early as the 1500’s.
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