The Phaeton owes its designation to the mythological personage of that name who received permission to drive the sun-car of Helios, his father, for one day, with the result that, being overthrown, he nearly set the world on fire. The Victoria was introduced in the year that witnessed the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. The Clarence was the favourite conveyance of the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV. The Brougham, invented in 1839, received its name from Lord Brougham, who was the first to permanently adopt it; and the same may be said of the Stanhope, so called in compliment to Lord Stanhope. The Sociable is an appropriate name enough for an open carriage of which the facing seats afford opportunity for pleasant conversation. The Landau was first made at Landau in Germany; whereas the Tilbury perpetuates the name of a celebrated London sportsman who introduced this particular species of carriage during the early part of the present century.

The small, light, one-horse vehicle known as a Dog-cart is so called because such a one was originally constructed for sportsmen to drive their pointers and setters (which they kept in a box under the seat) to the scene of the sport. The term Buggy is a corruption of Bourgeois, a French name indicating a vehicle intended for the middle classes so denominated; while Gig is a contraction of the Italian giga, a romp, and the French gigue, a lively dance, a jig, in allusion to its jumping and rocking motion. The like derivation applies to the long, light ship’s wherry which passes under the same name. The term Sulky, as applied to a light two-wheeled conveyance, owed its origin to the fact that, when it was introduced, people hazarded the opinion that none but sulky, morose, and selfish people would ride in such a carriage, because it had only accommodation for one person. The Noddy, peculiar to Dublin, derives its title from the jolting motion which keeps its riders continually nodding; and the Jaunting Car, from the jaunts and country outings for which, on the other side of the Irish Sea, these vehicles are largely employed. The English Break bears its name because it partakes of the character of the four-wheel vehicle used by horse-breakers; indeed, it differs from the latter only in the addition of the upper portion containing the seats.

Stage-coaches were originally so called on account of the different stages at which they stopped to change horses and refresh the passengers. ’Bus is short for Omnibus, a Latin word signifying “for all.” The step at the back of an omnibus is facetiously styled the Monkey-board, in consequence of the capers usually executed thereon by the conductor. The board on either side of the roof of the vehicle, upon which theatrical and other advertisements are exhibited is known as the Knife-board, from its fancied resemblance to that article of domestic utility. So far from having derived its name from one of the northern suburbs of London, a Hackney-coach is simply an English rendering of coche-a-haquence, the literal French for a coach drawn by a hired horse. The word Coach (French, coche, the diminutive of the Italian conchula, a shell) really means a shell-like contrivance upon wheels. Cab is a contraction of the Cabriolet, from cabriole, a goat’s leap, in allusion to its lightness and springiness, first introduced in Paris. This vehicle, after undergoing sundry changes and improvements, was patented in the year 1883 as the “Safety Cab” by Joseph Aloysius Hansom, from which circumstance it has in more recent times come to be generally designated the Hansom Cab.

The term Hearse traces its origin through the German hirsch from the Gothic hersa, a sepulchral mound. At a later date it implied a temporary monument, but nowadays it denotes the funeral car. The word Funeral, by the way, is a contraction of the Latin funeralis, signifying a torchlight procession, from funis, a torch, because interments among the Romans always took place by night. Pantechnicon is a Greek word, composed of pan, all, and techne, art, indicative of the place where every kind of industrial art was exhibited or exposed for sale. In modern days the term has come to be exclusively applied to a vehicle constructed for the removal of household furniture. Lastly, the cloth that covers the box-seat of a carriage of any kind is called the Hammer-cloth, because in the old coaching days it concealed the box which contained a hammer, nails, and other implements useful for repairs in the event of a breakdown on the journey.