Is cab short for anything?

Cab is a shortened version of the word cabriolet, which refers to a type of car with a removable or folding roof. “Cab is short for “cabriolet. When horse-drawn carriages took people from place to place, there were different types of carriage you could hire.



Yes, the word "cab" is a shortening of cabriolet, a type of light, two-wheeled, horse-drawn carriage that was popular in 19th-century France and London. The word cabriolet itself comes from the French cabrioler, meaning "to leap" or "to caper," referring to the carriage's springy motion as it moved over cobblestone streets. When these carriages were fitted with an automatic meter to record distance and fare (a taximeter), the vehicles became known as taxicabriolets, which was eventually shortened to taxicab and finally just taxi or cab. Interestingly, the "taximeter" part comes from the German Taxameter, rooted in the Latin taxa (tax or charge). So, when you call a "cab" today, you are using a term that literally describes a "leaping carriage with a fare meter," a linguistic relic of the transition from horse-drawn transport to the modern automobile.

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In the days of horse-drawn vehicles, one type of carriage was called a cabriolet, from a French word meaning leap. This name was fitting since the carriage was so light it bounced or leaped about on the rough roads of the time. In time the name cabriolet was shortened to cab.

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The term cab derives from the cabriolet, a two-wheeled, one-horse carriage often let out for hire. The development of modern taxicabs closely parallels that of automobiles. The first motorized taxicabs were electric-powered vehicles that began appearing on the streets of European and American cities in the late 1890s.

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A cab is a taxi.

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The Original London Taxis. Taxis in the city of London were initially called hackneys. The word itself came from “hacquenee” a Norman French word, which was used to mean a horse could be hired. In fact, the term is still there today, most people, especially the older generation, always call the taxis hackney cabs.

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A hackney or hackney carriage (also called a cab, black cab, hack or London taxi) is a carriage or car for hire. A hackney of a more expensive or high class was called a remise.

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What is correct in New York City, taxi or cab? Both are correct as the terms originated from the original word “taxicab”. Most people do call them taxis here.

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The word taxi, coming from the meter that calculates the fare (taximeter ), and cab from cabriolet , which originally was a covered horse drawn carriage. In some countries it's known as a taxi, and in others it's a cab. Most English speaking countries will know it as either or both.

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