[Healeys] Word Games, Third round

Editorgary at aol.com Editorgary at aol.com
Mon Feb 8 18:12:44 MST 2010


In a message dated 2/8/10 10:37:01 AM, healeys-request at autox.team.net 
writes:


> 
> Actually, "tonneau" is a french word that means litterally "barrel" (of
> wine for instance).
> It comes from the language used for the very early carriages.
> A tonneau was a car in which you stepped in in the front or in the rear.
> See there under that term
> http://www.rmc-cars.fr/load.php?lng=Fr&menu=Types%20de%20carrosserie
> 
> BC
> 

Thanks for the reference. Lots of fun stuff in there. So, to correct our 
derivation: A tonneau is a barrel. A car with a round rear end that looks like 
a barrel is called a tonneau. Hence now, the area behind the front seats on 
spyders/spiders (another fun area to explore -- why is a small convertible 
called by the name of an arachnid?), is called the tonneau. And we still 
wind up in the same place: the area that is covered is called the tonneau, and 
the cover which covers it is called a tonneau cover.

Drifting around that page, I was disappointed, however, to see cabriolet 
simply shown as a modern convertible car. The original cabriolets were light 
two-wheeled carriages with canvas tops. 
A spyder/spider was a lightweight four-wheel open carriage, incidentally. 
If you were a young squire, with a fast pacer, you'd road race against the 
other young bloods to prove that your carriage horse was faster than theirs, 
and of course you'd want the lightest carriage you could drive.

Now what was the original discussion about? I forget.
Gary


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