What should cars be called?

What would you rename cars as?

  • Cars

    Votes: 61 64.9%
  • Oilcarts

    Votes: 10 10.6%
  • Driveriders

    Votes: 3 3.2%
  • Roadrovers

    Votes: 11 11.7%
  • Four-wheelers

    Votes: 9 9.6%

  • Total voters
    94
  • Poll closed .
No, "car" is an exceedingly reasonable word.

It's not, because it meant something else - reading 19th century literature is somewhat mentally confusing...


You simply aren't going to get people to use phrases or long words in every day speech. "Horseless carriage" is too long. That's as likely to get shortened to "car" (possibly pronounced "care") as it is to anything else.

Most likely to "horseless" (cf. wireless), or maybe HC.
 
I'd like SUV – Selfdriven Utility Vehicle.

Alternatively, anything based on a combination of "auto" and something, e.g. automotor, autocar (would be informally shortened to "car" :)), autodrive....
 
Could get confused with

wives and girlfriends


The term was first used by the British tabloid press to refer to the wives and girlfriends of high-profile footballers, originally the England national football team. It came into common use during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, although the term had been used occasionally before that. The acronym has since been used by the media in other countries to describe the female partners of sportsperson in general.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAGs

Given how recent the term "WAG" in that context is, it's unlikely that they would be called that in a TL where cars are known as that.
 

Driftless

Donor
No, "car" is an exceedingly reasonable word. It's a 4 wheeled personal conveyance in Latin, French and all Celtic tongues (with minor variations). Carriage and chariot are variants.

"Auto" or "wagon" (as the Germans do) would make a lot of sense, too, but "car" really is in the running with them for most likely word.

You simply aren't going to get people to use phrases or long words in every day speech. "Horseless carriage" is too long. That's as likely to get shortened to "car" (possibly pronounced "care") as it is to anything else.

So, I vote "car"

Chariot works for me. (Though the name RoadRover has a nice ring to it.....)
 
Autos seem like a fairly practical idea. Of couse if it was up to me, I would call ot a smrziclpt for absolutely no reason at all other than the fact that it's fun to say, but I don't think people are gonna go with that.
 
Perhaps they could be named after the major producer of them early on in their respective countries? For instance, in the US they'd be called Fords, in Germany they'd be called Benzen, in the UK they'd be called Daimlers?

Problem is the UK had hundreds of car manufacturers rather than one big one. heck even Germany had several before Mercedes really took off.

I agree that Car and Auto are just too likely. I do have a soft spot for wain or wayn, from the OE form of wagen/wagon.
 
A few options

If they were popularized in a french speaking area, they might be called, "Chars" from the French for chariot. I could see some English speaking nations calling them, "Charts."

"Steamers" might work if the steam powered automobile was popular for long enough.

"Booms" could be a pejorative slang term based on frequent explosions...
 
How about Quadrigas as they are as fast as a four horse chariot later to be shorted to Quads or Rigas.
 
Top