Car Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘bag’ and now look at ‘car’.

Streetcar is seen from 1862 in the US, the same year as tramcar in the UK.

Car bomb is seen from 1972.

Car parks were unheard of before 1926.

Nobody used a car wash until 1924.

Carpool is seen from 1942, but only used as a verb from 1962.

Car sickness is first recorded in 1908.

Stock-car racing is first noted in 1914 as a race, prior to that it was a rail vehicle used to transport livestock.

Autocar, as opposed to automobile, first appears in 1895.

The first carports are recorded as early as 1939.

Motorcar appears, as above, in 1895.