English
locomotive
Locomotive comes from French locomotif.
- Frenchc. 1600–presentlocomotif
- Englishearliest quotation 1879locomotive
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Frenchc. 1600–presentlocomotif
- Englishearliest quotation 1879locomotive
Earliest quotation: 1879, F. D. Morice, Pindar: “Pindar seems to imply that these figures were actually…”
A compound of locō + mōtivus ‘moving’
Proto-Indo-European *stel- ‘to put, to place’
Proto-Italic *stlokos
Old Latin stlocus
Latin locus ‘place, location’
Latin locō
Proto-Indo-European *m(y)ewh₁- ‘to move’
Proto-Indo-European *m(y)owh₁éyeti
Proto-Italic *moweō ‘to move’
Latin moveō ‘to move, stir, set in motion’
Latin mōtus
Vulgar Latin mōtivus ‘moving’
The story
From French locomotif, from Latin locō (literally “from a place”) (ablative of locus (‘place’)) + Vulgar Latin mōtivus (‘moving’) (see motive). In the rail transport sense, ellipsis of locomotive (steam) engine, attested from 1814.
Every English word from French locomotif
Today it means
noun The power unit of a train that pulls the coaches or wagons.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / French locomotif / locomotive