The name “taxi” is obviously shortened from “taxicab”, which is derived from the two words: “taximeter” and “cabriolet”. The taximeter was invented in 1891 and is used to record distances and calculate the fare. Cabriolet refers to a horse drawn carriage where the driver stands in the back of the carriage. The name “taximeter” itself is derived from the Mid-Latin “taxa”, meaning “tax or charge”. The first documented use of the word “taxicab” was in March of 1907 in London. Another phrase that derived from taximeter was a “taxi dancer”, which was a woman who sold her services at dance halls.
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Last Update: Jan 03, 2023
This is a question our experts keep getting from time to time. Now, we have got the complete detailed explanation and answer for everyone, who is interested!
Asked by: Juliana Ortiz
Score: 4.6/5
(39 votes)
Interestingly the history of the word «taxi» as we use it for cars dates from the word taximeter the device installed in taxicabs to measure fare. Which comes from the french taxer-mètre. The evolution may come from the fact that the ground operations of the aircraft are part of the ticket which you paid for.
Is there such a word as taxiing?
Taxiing (rarely spelled taxying) is the movement of an aircraft on the ground, under its own power, in contrast to towing or pushback where the aircraft is moved by a tug. The aircraft usually moves on wheels, but the term also includes aircraft with skis or floats (for water-based travel).
What does taxiing mean airplane?
verb taxies, taxiing, taxying or taxied. to cause (an aircraft) to move along the ground under its own power, esp before takeoff and after landing, or (of an aircraft) to move along the ground in this way. (intr) to travel in a taxi.
Are airplanes TAXY or taxi?
Taxi or Taxy?- Many people ask us what is the correct spelling of Taxy. The answer is both or either! They can both be used to describe the ground movement of an aircraft under its own power.
What does taxi down the runway mean?
To move slowly on the ground or on the surface of the water before takeoff or after landing: an airplane taxiing down the runway.
39 related questions found
What is a file or taxi?
The File Taxi is a locking mobile office-in-a-box. A handy worksurface and convenient wagon-style pull handle are standard.
Does airplane have back gear?
No, airplanes don’t have a reverse gear. There is only one time when airplanes need to go backward, and that is when they are pushed back from the gate. While some types of planes could technically do this on their own, most airports require tugs to push the plane away from the terminal.
Why do they call it taxiing?
Interestingly the history of the word «taxi» as we use it for cars dates from the word taximeter the device installed in taxicabs to measure fare. Which comes from the french taxer-mètre. The evolution may come from the fact that the ground operations of the aircraft are part of the ticket which you paid for.
What is it called when a plane is waiting to land?
24. There is no generic name in aviation describing the state of an aircraft being hold up and unable to land. The simplest term I have in mind is «circling the airport». Depending on the way the aircraft is circling the airspace, specific names can be used.
How fast do planes take off?
Typical takeoff air speeds for jetliners are in the range of 240–285 km/h (130–154 kn; 149–177 mph). Light aircraft, such as a Cessna 150, take off at around 100 km/h (54 kn; 62 mph). Ultralights have even lower takeoff speeds.
How do pilots fly on ground?
Steering on the ground is achieved by turning the nose wheel, either by a tiller wheel in the cockpit or by using the rudder pedals. When taxiing, aircraft move slowly to reduce the risk of nose wheel damage. A slow speed also ensures a quick stop if necessary. Taxi speed is usually 10 to 20 knots (18–37km/h).
What is swept wing growth?
The A330 like most modern large transport aircraft have swept wings that are subject to a phenomenon known as ‘swept wing growth’ or ‘wing creep’. This occurs during a turn when the wing tip describes an arc greater than the normal wingspan due to the geometry of the aircraft and the arrangement of the landing gear1.
Do airplanes have steering wheels?
The yoke is the airplane’s “steering wheel.” The yoke controls the airplane’s ailerons. In simplest terms, it allows the pilot to move the airplane “up,” “down,” “over left,” and “over right.”Twistingthe yoke side to side controls roll and pitch.
Is taxiing a scrabble word?
Yes, taxiing is in the scrabble dictionary.
What is the meaning of the word clambering?
intransitive verb. : to climb awkwardly or with effort especially by using both the hands and the feet We clambered over the rocks.
Do planes taxi with jet engines?
Most aircraft taxi using their own engine power. Tugs are usually only used to get an aircraft to a safe distance away from all structures, people, and other aircraft before engine start, or if the engine(s) are inoperable (maintenance, mothballing, etc.).
What do pilots say before landing?
To indicate the landing clearance or final approach, the Captain will either make the following announcement and/or blink the No Smoking sign. “Flight attendants, prepare for landing please.” “Cabin crew, please take your seats for landing.” It may be followed by an announcement by a flight attendant.
Do planes dump fuel before landing?
Usually, airplanes won’t dump fuel in mid-air or when taking off or landing; they only do so immediately before they land the plane.
Why do planes circle before landing?
Why? Answer: The maneuver you describe is usually either a 360 degree turn issued by the air traffic controller to increase spacing between your flight and another airplane, or it was one turn in a holding pattern. The one turn in a holding can occur when the expected hold time is reduced, requiring only a single turn.
Do pilots sleep with flight attendants?
Flight attendants and pilots get there own designated sleeping areas on long-haul flights. … While flight attendants are supposed to sleep on bunk beds in tiny crew rest areas, pilots take rest in separate sleeping compartments, where they can spend up to half of their time on a long flight.
What are the 4 phases of flight?
4. Phases of a flight
- 4.2 Take-off. Takeoff is the phase of flight in which an aircraft goes through a transition from moving along the ground (taxiing) to flying in the air, usually starting on a runway. …
- 4.3 Climb. …
- 4.4 Cruise. …
- 4.5 Descent. …
- 4.6 Landing.
How do planes move?
A plane’s engines are designed to move it forward at high speed. That makes air flow rapidly over the wings, which throw the air down toward the ground, generating an upward force called lift that overcomes the plane’s weight and holds it in the sky. … The wings force the air downward and that pushes the plane upward.
How do planes move backwards?
Most airplanes can taxi backwards by using reverse thrust. This entails directing the thrust produced by the plane’s jet engines forward, rather than backwards. This method is often used in jet aircraft to brake as quickly as possible after touchdown. It’s also used when making an emergency stop.
Why do planes need pushback?
While the vehicle is referred to as a pushback tug, it is also used to tow aircraft in areas where taxiing the aircraft is not practical or is unsafe, such as moving aircraft in and out of maintenance hangars, or moving aircraft that are not under their own power.
Can Aeroplane stay in air without moving?
Techincally, there is only one way for the aircraft to remain hanging motionless in the air: if weight and lift cancel each other out perfectly, and at the same time thrust and drag cancel each other out too. But this is incredibly rare. To stay in the air and sustain its flight, an aircraft needs to be moving forward.
The name “TAXI” is obviously shortened from “TAXICAB”, which is derived from the two words: “TAXIMETER” and “CABRIOLET”.
The TAXIMETER was invented in 1891 and is used to record distances and calculate the fare.
The CABRIOLET refers to a horse drawn carriage where the driver stands in the back of the carriage.
The name “TAXIMETER” itself is derived from the Mid-Latin “TAXA”, meaning “Tax or Charge”. The first documented use of the word “TAXICAB” was in March of 1907 in London.
(Picture Courtesy to Google.com)
There are several versions of the origin of the term taxi. There is a hypothesis of a historical nature, related to the mail delivery system, which sees as the protagonist the noble German family Thurn und Taxis (from which the word “taxi” is derived).
The family, descended from the princes of the Holy Roman Empire, since the fifteenth century, had the task of spreading and managing the postal system in Europe and maintained its monopoly until 1866.
But what does the post have to do with private passenger transport? Before the birth of motor vehicles, those who urgently needed to travel used a horse-drawn carriage. At the end of the 18th century, the Thurn und Taxis family, who managed thousands of carriages and horses with which they delivered the mail, diversified their business, also using them for passenger transport.
Few people know that the noble family, pioneers in the mail delivery sector, was of Italian origin. In fact, in 1504 the two brothers from Bergamo Zanetto and Francesco Tasso took over the monopoly of the postal service throughout the empire from the Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I. At the end of the 18th century, the Tasso family (Germanized in Thurn und Taxis) managed 20,000 “postmasters”, thousands of horses and castles and was one of the richest in Europe.
A second, more philological version of the term, on the other hand, would trace the word “taxi” from taxa (cost), contained in the word taximeter, an 1891 invention by the German Wilhelm Bruhn (1869-1951) which spread around the world and is still in use today.
A third hypothesis attributes the origin of “taxi” to the Greek adjective tachus meaning “quick”, referring to the characteristic of being a fast way to get around.
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#1
What’s the origin of the word «TAXI»?
elroy
Moderator: EHL, Arabic, Hebrew, German(-Spanish)
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#2
Claudio Gerhardt said:
What’s the origin of the word «TAXI»?
taxi
1907, shortening of taximeter cab (introduced in London in March 1907), from taximeter «automatic meter to record the distance and fare» (1898), from Fr. taximètre, from Ger. Taxameter (1890), coined from M.L. taxa «tax, charge.» An earlier Eng. form was taxameter (1894), used in horse-drawn cabs. The verb is first recorded 1911, from earlier noun use as slang for «aircraft.» Taxicab is also first attested 1907. Taxi dancer «woman whose services may be hired at a dance hall» is recorded from 1930. Taxi squad in U.S. football is 1966, from a former Cleveland Browns owner who gave his reserves jobs with his taxicab company to keep them paid and available [«Dictionary of American Slang»], but other explanations (short-term hire or shuttling back and forth from the main team) seem possible.
Source: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=taxi
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#3
Claudio Gerhardt said:
What’s the origin of the word «TAXI»?
From the OED Online:
Taxi-cab: [Short for TAXIMETER cab, and itself shortened to TAXI n.]
Taximeter: [ad. F. taximètre, f. taxe tariff + -mètre = —METER. The form taxameter, used a few years earlier, was from German: cf. med.L. taxa tax. (An earlier German name from c 1875 was taxanom.)]
EDIT: The date of first recorded use is 1907 from the Daily Chronical:
1907 Daily Chron. 26 Mar. 6/7 Every journalist..has his idea of what the vehicle should be called. It has been described as the (1) taxi, (2) motor-cab, (3) taxi-cab, (4) taximo,..(7) taximeter-cab.
-Jonathan.
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#4
Hi. I’ve always thought that taxi derived from French taximètre or from German Taxameter, both from Medieval Latin taxa, from Classical Latin taxāre, «to value». Recently, I have found another hypothesis usually rejected as an after-the fact creation that is popular especially in Germany. It is about an Italian family called Tasso or de Tassis (probably a Latinized version of the surname) who had in their coat of arms a tower (torre) and a badger (tasso). These heraldical elements were the source for their Germanized surname Thurn und Taxis. They had the monopoly of the Imperial mail system from 1490 to 1867.
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#5
This theory is not mentioned on the German Wiki main page about Thurn und Taxis, but there’s a short reference to this in the related discussion. (An anonymous person suggests this etymology and asks for evidence of any kind but can’t offer any himself.)
Myself I’ve never heard about this etymology «taxi» < «Thurn und Taxis Post», and as their postal service was nationalised by the Prussian king in 1867 I think it will be very difficult to find any proof for this theory at all.
Also Kluge, Etymologisches Wörterbuch doesn’t even mention the «Thurn und Taxis» theory.
So I would reject this as folk etymology unless someone could come up with really good evidence.
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#6
They had the monopoly of the Imperial mail system from 1490 to 1867.
A little side note: The monopoly obviously existed only until the dissolution of the empire in 1806. The Thurn und Taxis mail continued to exist until 1867 but not as a monopoly.
I agree with Sokol that Thurn und Taxis>Taxi is most probably just folk etymology.
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#7
I have only found evidence for the German Wilhelm Bruhn as the inventor of the modern taximeter in the early 1890s (G: taxameter, F: taximètre), from which the word taxi was derived. Most dictionaries suggest the French word as the origin for the word taxi in English, while other languages may have taken it from English or French.
Presumably, Bruhn, or whoever held the German patent, would have named the contraption, and I am convinced that the most logical origin would be a Latin word for a fare-measuring device such as taxameter rather than Thurn & Taxis.
/Wilma
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#8
Side note:
Latin verb taxare probably originated from the Greek verb tassō τάσσω, fut. τάξω (= to arrange in orderly manner, also to assess); the related noun taxis τάξις, pl. τάξεις (= order, also duty) is strikingly similar to the word taxi.
Last edited: Jan 4, 2009
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#9
Taxare is obviously related to «tax».
However, there is also a prefix taxo-/taxi- of Greek origin, used in many European languages in words like «taxonomy» and «taxidermist»…
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#10
The word «taxi» also has this meaning: To move slowly on the ground or on the surface of the water before takeoff
or after landing.
What is the origin of this meaning?
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#11
I’ve always wondered this myself. It looks like it was aircraft slang that was adopted very soon after the motor vehicle use, as the OED gives these earliest dates:
1907 ‘taxi’ meaning a car for hire
1911 ‘taxi’ meaning a small passenger aeroplane [not used today]
1911 ‘taxi’ meaning driving an aeroplane along a runway
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#12
Hmm… on first sight and after a not-too-helpful trip to the OED, the idea of to taxi = Of an aeroplane, etc., or its pilot: to travel slowly along the ground or water under the machine’s own power. (my emphasis) is first recorded
«1911 Aeroplane 8 June 8/1 «The only way to get [his] ‘bus into the air is to ‘taxi’ to the sewage farm remou and get pulled off the ground by it!»
The verb seems to have come from the idea that taxis were distinguished from the various earlier, but then present, forms of horse-drawn cab, by the fact that they were «horseless» (cf ‘horseless carriage’ — an early term for a car) and moved by themselves — i.e. under their own power.
Thus to taxi was used to mean «under its own power» as opposed to «be towed/pulled/pushed by something else.»
Last edited: Feb 15, 2013
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#13
Is there no relation to the Greek ταχύ-ς (tachus) «swift» (as in «tachycardia»)? I’ve found no documentation for this, but it would seem almost obvious.
Last edited: Feb 15, 2013
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#14
I would not have thought so, as the definition of to taxi involves, «slowly»
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#15
I was thinking more of its beginning with «taxi-cab,» a vehicle which allows one to move faster (than walking). The taxiing an airplane does, while slower than taking off or landing is still rapid compared to walking. But there’s also the Greek «τάξις» (taxis) meaning arrangement, order, which seems to have little to do with vehicles.
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#16
The origin of Cab is abbreviation of Cabriolet (Shorter OED 1973 edn.). Orig. horse drawn passenger vehicle for public hire. Taxi is shortened version of taxi(meter)-cab. To taxi is to travel in a taxi-cab.
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#17
I was thinking more of its beginning with «taxi-cab,» a vehicle which allows one to move faster (than walking). The taxiing an airplane does, while slower than taking off or landing is still rapid compared to walking. But there’s also the Greek «τάξις» (taxis) meaning arrangement, order, which seems to have little to do with vehicles.
I always thought it was of Greek origin. And to take your post a little further, i always thought of the Greek word «taxidi», which means trip or journey. That has to be it.
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#18
I always thought it was of Greek origin. And to take your post a little further, i always thought of the Greek word «taxidi», which means trip or journey. That has to be it.
The explanation in etymonline sounds sufficiently believable to me:
1911, of airplanes, from slang use of taxi(n.) for «aircraft,» or from or reinforced «in allusion to the way a taxi driver slowly cruises when looking for fares» [Barnhart].
As to the origin of the noun taxi, the given explanations make sense. The taximeter was invented in the 1880s by a German engineer Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav Bruhn who worked at the time for Ingenieurbüro Westendarp & Pieper in Hamburg. You can easily find references to the device under that name in official publication from the 1890s (example, example). As described, it is from med. Latin taxa + Greek metron. In German Taxe (< French taxe) means tariff, service charge or estimate of the the value of an object. Taxameter then entered French as taxametère where was «corrected» to taximètre by philologist Théodore Reinach to allude to the Greek noun taxis (see entry in in TLFi), from which the meaning taxe=estimate is probably derived. The word then entered English in this form.
Last edited: Dec 12, 2017
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#19
The word «taxi» also has this meaning: To move slowly on the ground …
«TAXI» makes a joke in Greek if pronounced a-la-greca as ταχί, which means fast (although misspelled).
The origin of med.lat. «taxa» (tax) seems to be the Greek τάξις (order, class), used in biology for the taxo-nomy of organisms. Maybe from the classification of people in income categories, for the purpose of taxation. From v. τάσσω/τάττω (put in order).
fdb
Senior Member
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#20
«TAXI» makes a joke in Greek if pronounced a-la-greca as ταχί, which means fast (although misspelled).
The origin of med.lat. «taxa» (tax) seems to be the Greek τάξις (order, class), used in biology for the taxo-nomy of organisms. Maybe from the classification of people in income categories, for the purpose of taxation. From v. τάσσω/τάττω (put in order).
I have heard that joke too. The point is that taxis in Greece actually have TAXI (in Latin script) written on them. The correct pronunciation is /taksi/ of course, but the proverbial illiterate Greek is imagined to pronounce it like ταχύ «fast».
And yes, «tax, taxonomy» etc. do derive from the Greek τάξις.
Last edited: Dec 13, 2017
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#21
One day in early July 1894, two entrepreneurs from Hamburg named Bruhn and Westendorf attended a meeting at the Board of Trade in London concerning their device, called a taxameter-fare indicator.
[…]
The German name of Taxameter, at first adopted in Britain, was taken from Taxe, a charge or levy. After the device became common in Paris (another city that was well ahead of London), the French created the term taximètre for it, from taxe, a tariff (the e changed to i through the influence of the famous Hellenist Théodore Reinach in a letter to Le Temps newspaper in 1906, in which he advocated going back to the classical Greek taxis from which both the German and French words ultimately derived).
World Wide Words: Taxi
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#22
Moderator note: This thread resulted from a merger of two old threads which have been extended over the years. That is why explanations may at times be repetitive (like #18 and #21). They cover both, the noun taxi (as in taxicab) and the verb taxi (of an airplane).
Sorry for that.
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#23
The explanation in etymonline sounds sufficiently believable to me:
1911, of airplanes, from slang use of taxi(n.) for «aircraft,» or from or reinforced «in allusion to the way a taxi driver slowly cruises when looking for fares» [Barnhart].
If «taxi» as verb for moving planes comes from «in allusion to the way a taxi driver slowly cruises when looking for fares» or from slang use of taxi for aircraft, what was the word used before that then for planes’ slow-moving motion, if there was one?
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#24
before that then for planes’ slow-moving motion, if there was one?
How many airports with airplanes taxiing do you now that existed already before 1911?
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#25
Well, I wouldn’t have thought that even in 1911, many airplanes were taxiing … but if the word arose already in 1911, maybe some were?
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#26
Why should there have been a word for that? Maybe they just said «the plane moved at slow speed on the runway», or something like that.
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#27
^ Thanks, was just wondering if there was one. Maybe, there was none, the times didn’t demand one.