It’s Tuesday! Time for another Fun Etymology!
Today’s word is cab!
For most of us, perhaps, when someone says cab, we think of this:
![Image result for cab](https://i0.wp.com/live.staticflickr.com/8433/7731693856_63c3ce98df_b.jpg?resize=503%2C334&ssl=1)
But, originally, it actually referred to something more like this:
![Image result for cabriolet horse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/The_book_of_the_horse_-_thorough-bred%2C_half-bred%2C_cart-bred%2C_saddle_and_harness%2C_British_and_foreign%2C_with_hints_on_horsemanship%3B_the_management_of_the_stable%3B_breeding%2C_breaking_and_training_for_the_%2820404499371%29.jpg)
Known especially for their springy suspensions, these passenger-vehicles, commonly drawn by two or four horses, were known as cabs. This was a colloquial London shortening of cabriolet, which was a type of covered carriage.
The word was borrowed from the French word cabriolet, from around the 18th century, a diminutive of cabriole, meaning “a leap, a caper”. Earlier, around the 16th century, it was known as capriole, from Italian capriola, meaning “a caper, frisk, leap” – which literally translates to “a leap like that of a kid goat”, from capriola, meaning “a kid, a fawn”!
Now, where did the goat come from, you wonder?
Well, the Italian word comes from Latin capreolus, meaning “wild goat, roebuck”. This comes from caper, capri, meaning “he-goat, buck” from PIE *kap-ro, meaning the same thing.
Interestingly, the PIE ancestor is also the source of Irish gabor, Welsh gafr, Old English hæfr and Old Norse hafr, all meaning “he-goat”.
From goat to a yellow car that drives you around, this is the story of cab and this week’s Fun Etymology!