00000036-1
There are a lot of “automobile” words in our language. I wonder where they came from? For example, "freeway". Strada is an Italian street. A street for cars is a top-class road, without intersections.
The ancient Chinese on all roads had special stations with houses for changing horses to the messengers. They called them "Yamb", which meant "postal house." The Tatar-Mongols adopted this experience and also made "holes" in the Horde. This word stuck in Russia, where at the beginning of the 16th century stations were established along the most important roads - “pits”, which were run by coachmen. Similar stations, after nearly a hundred years, in the 17th century, appeared in France. So, the postal station for changing horses in French is called a "relay." With this word, "relay", much later they began to call the electromagnetic amplifier of telegraph signals. And in the XX century - and an electromagnetic device, including in the vehicle electrical system.
By the way, the Latin word "post" also meant a station with a change of horses, so strictly speaking the combination of the words "post station" is a tautology.
The word "transformer" comes from the Latin "transformer" - to convert. This device converts alternating current by changing its voltage. The transformer, called the ignition coil, does the same job on the car. He turns the low voltage of the battery into high, which is necessary for the formation of a spark on the electrodes of the candle. To excite a high voltage current, it is necessary to periodically open the low voltage circuit. To do this, use the breaker - distributor. On old cars with their low-speed engines were electromagnetic breakers. The hammer of such a device, made of spring steel, was attracted by the core of the electromagnet and opened the contacts. When the current flow stopped in the winding, the hammer bounced and closed the contacts. At the same time, he vibrated incessantly, trembling finely. In English, "tremble" means finely trembling, trembling. From here the name “trembler” came, and then “distributor”, which was put into circulation by Russian drivers who drove ninety years ago in English and American cars. Later, more perfect mechanical breakers began to call this word.
Few people today know that the word “steering wheel” is taken from the Dutch language and supplanted the ancient Russian words “rule” and “fed” at one time. It was so long ago that Lermontov already wrote: "Without a rudder and without sails." Peter I, a great lover of everything Dutch, transplanted into foreign soil, along with other marine terms, a foreign “ruhr”. Later, this word began to sound like “steering wheel”.
The “ditch” in French is simply a “couch”, and at the same time a “gutter”. Obviously, there were times when the French loved to drink hard, after which the nearest ditch became their couch.
But the word "driver" has a different fate. It appeared in our country with a car. However, in France, even before the invention of the "self-propelled crew", the driver was called the stoker, and later the locomotive fireman. But time passed, and the foreign-language “driver” was increasingly giving way to the “driver”.
Put on chain mail, get into the stroller and ride along this track to Kolomna, not the wheels near the outskirts, otherwise you will be picked up by the one with a red band around the cap. How do you like that phrase? The justification of this nonsense is only that it contains nine words at once, leading their genealogy, like our wheel, from the ancient "stake". Dahl’s dictionary says: “Kolo - circle, circle, rim, hoop, wheel.” Therefore, to travel is to drive in a circle, to wander to no avail. Around - in a circle. Kolomna is a city near Moscow. Okolitsa - departure from the village, a fence around it. Chain mail - battle armor made of ringlets. At the wheel of the car there are many other etymological relatives: a gingerbread man, a rotor, a roundabout, hanging around …
