On Jan 4, 4:43pm, Garry Archer wrote:
> Well, it seems that we all have assumed that the "Shooting" part is
> to do with the Landed Gentry's fondness for downing a few birds as
> a means of some sport. We have assumed that the vehicle in question
> is assigned to convey these ol' sports to their task.
And yes, these are proper assumptions.
> So someone designed this vehicle, I assume, and wanted to give it a
> fancy name. "Shooting Car"? Hmmmm, not fancy enough!
But you see, making the connection of "car" as in "automobile" is muck too
recent for this term. The term "Brake", which is a variation of "Break"
in this case, refers to a carriage of the non-horseless variety. Back before
Stanley and Ford et. al., a break was "a high swung pleasure vehicle carrying
six or more passengers, driver, and footman." The "Landed Gentry," as Gary so
aptly puts it, apparently simply continued to apply this traditional term to
the more modern motor-cars.
Obsequiously yours,
Pat Vilbrandt John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. Everett, Washington USA
UUCP: pwv@tc.fluke.COM or: { uunet, uw-beaver, sun, microsoft }!fluke!pwv
ARPA: fluke!pwv@uw-beaver.ARPA
"Can't wait until I get the car back into the condition I was
going to disassemble it to"
-TeriAnn J. Wakeman
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