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.

Street Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. We looked at 'road' last time and this time it is, perhaps predictably, 'street'.

Street people is a reference to the homeless seen from 1967, albeit ‘on the streets’ had been used since 1852, and the former used to refer to prostitutes from around 1728.

Street smarts, another Americanism, is first recorded in 1971.

Street credibility, today almost always abbreviated to ‘street cred’, has only been seen since 1979.

Street preacher is first seen in 1722, albeit originally referring to Methodists, or sometimes Quakers.

Street sweepers were not known as such before 1848.

Street wise is first recorded in 1951.

Street car, the American equivalent of the British ‘tram’, is first recorded in 1859.

Street walker is used tro refer to a prostitute from 1590, and twenty years later describes a pedestrian.

Backstreet has been used to refer to a route away from the more regular routes since the 15th century, and used in a derogatory sense for almost as long.