Where did the word 'automobile' come from?

On Jan. 3, 1899, the New York Times printed the word "automobile" upon its austere pages. It wasn't the first publication to do so; Scientific American used the phrase "automobile carriage" in a May 14, 1898, review of the Winton Motor Carriage, but the Grey Lady -- a more influential publication -- was the first to debate the term.

The Times penned an editorial lambasting the suggestions that these newfangled motor-carriages be called "autotrucks," or even "autowains" (which takes the latter part from an old Saxon word meaning "wagon", as one Avery Quercus explained less than a week later). No, "There is something uncanny about these new-fangled vehicles," wrote the beleaguered, invective-spewing editorial board. "They are all unutterably ugly and never a one of them has been provided with a good, or even an endurable, name." The board cited that the word "automobile" has Greek and Latin roots that are "near to indecent that we print it with hesitation." Greek and Latin, how uncouth!

"Automobile" comes from the French, "who are usually orthodox in their etymology if in nothing else." A son of France did invent the car, after all, owing to the efforts of Nicholas Cugnot. L'Acad

By Blake Z. Rong