A MOTORIST'S VOCABULARY

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 6 March 1926, Page 15

A MOTORIST'S VOCABULARY

The part which foreign engineers have taken in the improvement of automobiles is indicated by the survival of some familiar terms. There was a time when the motorist’s vocabulary was dominated by French terms, and even American ingenuity has failed to find substitutes for some. “Garage,” “chassis,” and “chauffeur” are three indispensables. Chauffeur possesses an entirely different meaning to-day. Thirty" years ago it signified an engineer in charge of the firing of one of the remarkable steam cars and steam tricycles which were then making their appearance. The disappearance of the term ' ‘ tonneau’’ dates from the abolition of the type of body with a rear entrance to the seats. In American catalogues and specifications, the gear-box becomes the gear-set, and mudguards are termed “fenders.” The English motorist still calls the bumper a “buffer,” and cranks are still “starting handles.” Perhaps no word used in connection with motoring is more ambiguous than “service.” Every garage seems to have a different interpretation of the term. It may mean eevrything, or very little. Service to a motor-car may mean the provision of benzine, water and air. In other quarters it implies the filling of the grease cups, and again it might mean battery inspection or washing and cleaning. Some “service stations” have enough machine shop equipment to reconstruct an entire car. Others flouting the same name may have no lathes, vulcanisers, or machine tools.