limousine

英文词源

limousine

limousine: [20] Limousin is a former province of central France. Its inhabitants commonly wore a distinctive style of cloak, and when at the beginning of the 20th century a new and luxurious type of car was designed with a closed passenger compartment and an open but roofed seat for the driver, it evidently struck someone that the roof resembled a Limousin cloak, and so the car was named a limousine. The American abbreviation limo is first recorded from the 1960s.

limousine (n.)

1902, "enclosed automobile with open driver's seat," from French limousine, from Limousin, region in central France, originally an adjective referring to its chief city, Limoges, from Latin Lemovices, name of a people who lived near there, perhaps named in reference to their elm spears or bows. The Latin adjective form of the name, Lemovicinus, is the source of French Limousin.

Modern automobile meaning evolved from perceived similarity of the car's profile to a type of hood worn by the inhabitants of that province. Since 1930s, synonymous in American English with "luxury car;" applied from 1959 to vehicles that take people to and from large airports. Limousine liberal first attested 1969.