Taxi

Taxi (pronounced tak-see)

(1) A shortening of taxicab (itself a truncation of taximeter cab), traditionally a light vehicle usually fitted with a taximeter, available for hire (with its driver) to carry passengers to a specified destination; a taxi-truck extends the same concept to freight.

(2) To ride or travel in a taxicab

(3) In aviation, to cause (an aircraft) to move along the ground under its own power, especially before take-off and after landing, or to cause an aircraft to move along the ground in this way.

(4) In military slang, the act of transporting troops or the helicopter or plane used for the transport.

1907: A shortened form of taximeter cab, taximeter (automatic meter that records distance and fare) from the French taximètre, from the German Taxameter, from Taxanom, the construct a coinage based on Taxe (tax, charge or scale of charges), from the Medieval Latin taxa (tax, charge) + meter.  Ultimately however, taxi may be traced back to the Ancient Greek τάξις (taxis) from τάσσω (to place in a certain order (in the sense of “commanding an orderly battle line” or “ordaining the payment of taxes”) to the extent that ταξίδι (taxidi) ("journey" in Modern Greek) originally denoted an orderly military march or campaign (an "operation whereby displaced parts are put back in their natural situation”) noted in 1758 in the Medical Latin , a verbal noun of tassein (arrange), from the primitive Indo-European root tag- (to touch, handle).  Meter (also metre) in this sense was from the Old English meter (versification), from the Latin mētrum, from the Ancient Greek μέτρον (metron) (meter, a verse; that by which anything is measured; measure, length, size, limit, proportion) from the primitive Indo-European root me- (to measure).  It seems the word was in the early fourteenth century re-borrowed after a three-century gap in recorded use, from Old French metre, with the specific sense of "metrical scheme in verse" from the Latin mētrum and it has since been part of a structural language of poetry as well as the general sense related to “measure”.  The taximeter, originally a mechanical (clockwork) device, was later electro-mechanical and finally electronic, was the means by which the distance travelled was recorded and the fare calculated.

Stuffed: A tiger, reputedly a thirty-year old male which died from natural causes while in captivity.

In use since 1820, taxidermy (the stuffing of animal carcases for purposes of display) combines taxi in classical sense of "arrangement, an arranging with derma (skin, from the primitive Indo-European der-(to split, flay, peel), the idea again being an "operation whereby displaced parts are put back in their natural situation”;  Reflecting the popularity of big-game hunting and the volume of dead animals increasingly available to display as trophies, the profession of taxidermist was first noted in 1827.  Taxonomy (the nomenclature of the science of classification in zoology, botany etc), dates from 1819, from the (1813) French taxonomie and was an (irregular) formation from the Ancient Greek taxis (ie the sense of “arrangement") +  -nomia (method), the related forms being taxonomic & taxonomist.

Dating from 1766, cabriolet (light two-wheeled chaise, a type of horse-drawn carriage), was from the French cabriolet, from the Italian cabriole & cabriole (horse caper) +‎ -et.  Cabriole & cabriole were from the Latin capreolus (wild goat), from the primitive Indo-European kápros (buck, he-goat) and related to the Old Norse hafr (he-goat), the Old English hæfr, the Welsh gafr and the Old Irish gabor.  The seemingly strange relationship between the Latin capreolus (roebuck; wild goat) and the eighteenth century horse-drawn carriage is explained by the French cabriole (little caper) a meaning derived from its light movement, from cabrioler (to leap, caper), from the Italian capriolare (to somersault), from the Latin capreolus (roebuck; wild goat), the idea being of something light and agile in movement.  The larger, more upscale version of the lightweight carriages the French named cabriolet, “cab” being the common form in the vernacular.  The –et suffix, indicating diminution or affection, was borrowed from Old French -et, and its feminine variant -ette, both derived from the Late Latin -ittus (and the other gender forms -itta, -ittum).

1966 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE Cabriolet.

In the collector-car market, the Mercedes-Benz W111 (1961-1971) & W112 (1962-1967) remain coveted and, as is usually the case, it's the convertibles which are most sought after, even though the cabriolet lacks the coupé's lovely roofline.  Pedants note that although the two-door W111s & W112s are technically a Coupé B & Cabriolet B in the factory's naming system, they're never referred to as such because no other configuration was offered in the model.  The W112 (300 SE) is of interest too because of the chrome moldings around the wheel arches, a feature which had been seen on some earlier cars and would be shared by the 600 Grosser (W100, 1963-1981).  Criticized by some when they appeared on the 600, the additional chrome on the W112 wasn't to everyone's taste (and it was a "delete option" when new) but it clearly had an enduring appeal because for decades after-market suppliers found a read market among those with later model Mercedes-Benz, BMWs, Jaguars and some others.  This is not approved of by the purists and whether in chrome, stainless steel or anodised plastic (!) it makes not difference: the originality police insist if it wasn't done by the factory, it shouldn't be done.

1971 Mercedes-Benz 280SE 3.5 Cabriolet (a converted coupé).

This is one really to upset the originality police because (1) it started life as a coupé, (2) the chrome wheel-arch moldings were never available on this model and (3) the (Fuchs Bundts) aluminium wheels have been chromed (and may anyway be reproductions).  Such is the price premium the cabriolets command compared with the coupés, over the years, many have been tempted to cut but exactly to replicate what the factory did is harder than it sounds.   

The application of cabriolet to describe convertible cars emerged in the early years of the continental motor industry because of the conceptual similarity to the earlier, light horse-drawn two-seater carriages but as the years went by, although there was never all that much exactitude in the nomenclature, the terms to describe the variations in convertible coachwork became merely model names (except for the much later targa which Porsche had the foresight to register as a trademark) and if a car was called a roadster, drophead coupé, phaeton, cabriolet or landau, it was an indication only that the roof could (usually) be removed or folded back.  One exception to that was Daimler-Benz which tightly defined the specifications of roadsters and landaulets and, with Teutonic thoroughness, in the mid-twentieth century codified the five variations of Mercedes-Benz cabriolets as Cabriolet A, B, C, D & F (if ever there was a Cabriolet E, the factory’s definition has never surfaced.

The taxicabs of Paris were first equipped with meters in 1898; originally called taxibread, they were renamed taximètres in 1904 and the first six-hundred petrol (gas) powered New York taxicabs were imported from France (then the world’s largest producer of automobiles) in 1907, the name “taxicab” borrowed from London where it had been in used for some time.  Fake news soon emerged, reports circulating in the New York press that the handy new vehicles were named after Franz II von Taxis of the house of Thurn and Taxis (1514-1543; postmaster for Philip of Burgundy) and his nephew Johann Baptiste von Taxis (1470-1541; Postmaster-General of the Holy Roman Empire).  Both were innovative in instituting in Europe (for the first time since the Roman Empire) fast and reliable postal services and on some routes passengers were also able to purchase seats so while the Taxis’ did provide taxi services in something close to the modern sense of the word, they never used the word “taxi” for service or the vehicles.  They did however for centuries keep the lucrative postal business in family hands.

The word taxi spread quickly around the world and exists as a borrowing in many languages but some tongues localized the spelling including Burmese (takka.ci), Cantonese (的士 (dik)), Mandarin (的士 (dīshì or díshì), Irish (tacsaí), Japanese (タクシー (takushī)), Korean (택시 (taeksi)), Malay (teksi), Welsh (tacsi), Yiddish (אַקסי‎ (taksi)), Yoruba (takisí & tasín), Asturian (tasi), Basque (taxilari & taximetro), Catalan (taxista), Czech (taxík), Danish (definite singular taxien, indefinite plural taxier, definite plural taxierne), Dutch (taxietje (as a diminutive & taxichauffeur (the driver) & Indonesian (taksi (a colonial descendent from the Dutch)) although with these, the English taxi often peacefully co-exists.

Hansom Cabs, New York City, 1900.

The Hansom cab was a two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage, named after its designer, English architect Joseph Hansom (1803–1882), founder of the architectural journal The Builder (1843) and noted for his work in the Gothic Revival style and . He patented the Hansom cab in 1834 and it became instantly popular, being more compact, faster and more manoeuvrable than the hackney cabs (pulled by Hackney horses) it replaced and safer too, the centre of gravity considerably lower.  What convinced many operators to switch was that the Hansom cab was light enough to be pulled by a single horse, lowering operating costs by at least 40% and their small size made accessible many more parts of London’s tight and congested nineteenth-century streets.  Within two years they had spread to the continent, throughout the British Empire and to the United States and after clockwork mechanical taximeters (then called taxameters) were in 1894 added to measure fares, the name became taxicab.  To this day, they’re still sometimes incorrectly called “handsome cabs”.

In aviation, taxi was a slang use, an allusion to the way a taxi driver slowly cruises when looking for fares, applied to an airplane “taxiing" slowly along the tarmac coming from or going to the runway.  At some airports, designated parts of the tarmac are still designated as taxiways, a word which seems not to have been otherwise adopted although runway is now often used in the fashion industry, the traditional catwalk seen by some as too gender-loaded.  Another adoption which didn’t endure was the 1930s “taxi dancer” (a woman whose services (as a dance partner) were available for hire at a dance hall).

Checker taxicab, circa 1974.

Immortalized over decades by their appearances in film and television, for decades the usually yellow (Dupont M6284 yellow was the actual paint-code) Checker was the taxicab which dominated the US market.  They were not retired from service until 1999, their appearance almost unchanged from the last major styling in 1959 and the final tranche in taxi service had covered more than a million miles (1.6m km), a reasonable achievement for a life spent mostly in the confines of cities.  The company in its modern form emerged just in time to suffer the effects of the great depression in the early 1930s but it survived and, although producing vehicles only in small volumes which never exceeded a few thousand a year, it remained profitable until the 1970s when the recession and two oil shocks threatened survival, it not being obvious that the capital could be raised to develop a new, more fuel-efficient generation of taxis.  At the same time, under pressure from operators, cities were de-regulating the technical requirements for taxis, meaning the mass-produced mainstream models from the major manufacturers could be added to fleets.  Cheaper to produce and buy, their adoption was the death knell for Checker and production ceased in 1982, the company continuing as a part supplier until finally shuttered in 2010 in the wake of the recession which followed the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).

Checker Marathon advertising, 1960s.

As well as the taxicab which was for six decades the mainstream line, between 1960-1982, Checker also sold a consumer version as the Marathon, aimed at the private buyer who was prepared to sacrifice the advantages of more modern designs for the virtues of the taxi (robustness, timelessness (albeit circa 1955) and interior space).  So dated was the appearance that Checkers built in the 1970s were often used in film and television even though the productions were depicting periods from earlier decades and in films set during the Cold War, they were popular as convincing substitutes the cars of Eastern Bloc apparatchiks.  The Marathon was available as a sedan or station wagon and even a few long-wheelbase limousines were built although in an age of stylistic exuberance, there was little demand for something which echoed the stolid lines of the early 1950s.

Most distinctive however were the six and eight-door Aerobuses aimed at the resort-hotel and airport shuttle business.  Available (off and on) between 1962-1977 and never built in great numbers, the eight-door models were the most numerous and both could be ordered as station wagons which Checker marketed sometimes as the “nine-door”, a European practice which counted the tailgate.  Surprisingly, despite the startlingly elongated appearance, there were few engineering challenges in developing and producing the Aerobus, the Marathon’s X-section reinforced frame was as sturdy as many light trucks and with a body made with heavy gauge steel, the lengthening process detracted little from structural integrity.  The affected central section was unchanged for its entire life and the anyway hardly expensive costs of development were amortized long before production ceased in 1977, something induced by a collapse in demand, not inherent unprofitability.

The Checker Limousine was an interesting venture into a market segment which did exist, even if not generally acknowledged.  There had always been those who easily could afford to buy a Cadillac yet instead drove Buicks or Oldsmobiles and their reasons varied.  Some eschewed ostentation, some (with conspicuous visibility to customers or clients) preferred to appear just prosperous enough to inspire confidence and others just couldn't see the additional value for the extra cost.  Checker thought they might be able to carve a niche in this segment and in 1963, announced what they would come to advertise as the "Custom Limousine" (although the initial publicity material described it as the "Marathon Town Custom"), built on a 129 inch (3277 mm) wheelbase, a 9 inch stretch of the standard platform, all the additional space gained by the rear compartment.

For Checker, it was neither a novel nor an expensive project, the engineering for the six and eight-door Aerobuses (1962-1977), respectively on 154½ inch (3924 mm) & 189 inch (4801 mm) wheelbases proving the robustness of the chassis and, in the tradition of the company, there was no attempt to offer the luxurious interior appointments familiar in most limousines although the quality of the upholstery was better and accessories like power windows were available; perhaps it was thought the divider isolating passengers from the chauffeur and the option of a vinyl roof was distinction enough.  There was though the luxury of space and an ease of ingress and egress which increasingly had been sacrificed as Cadillacs, Lincolns and Imperials had become lower.  With its flat floor and high roof, that might have been attractive for the older demographic of men who might have been tempted, many of whom presumably still wore hats, something they could leave on when seated, a design aspect last championed by Chrysler in the early 1950s.  Essentially, the Checker Limousine was little different in appearance to the to the GAZ-13 Chaika (Seagull), built in the USSR between 1959-1981 by Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (GAZ, Gorky Automobile Plant), almost exclusively for well-connected apparatchiks in the Communist Party.  A pastiche of early-mid 1950s US styling trends, most consider it owed its greatest debt to the Packards of the era though whether this was in genuine admiration or a nod to comrade Stalin’s fondness for the marque isn't known.

The Checker Limousine however never approached the GAZ either in the volume made nor longevity.  Priced (perhaps optimistically) low in the range of (non-limousine) Cadillacs, production didn't reach far into two figures and after three lacklustre seasons (1964-1967), the model was withdrawn from the list although Checker probably did amortize the investment, the 129 inch wheelbase platform re-cycled (the limousine's A19E chassis code changed to A12E for the purpose) to create a taxi version with seating for an additional two or three.  In Australia, that approach appealed to both Ford and GMH (General Motors Holden) which, in small volumes for the taxi and hire-car industries, offered cheaper, less well appointed, versions of their long-wheelbase executive models (respectively as the Fairlane Custom and the Statesman), an approach which lasted until the mid 1970s.

Long-time New York City taxi customer, Lindsay Lohan.

Jumbo

Jumbo (pronounced juhm-boh)

(1) An informal descriptor for a very large person, animal, or thing, applied especially to an unusually large version of something usually smaller.

(2) In commerce, a term (sometimes interpolated into a brand) used to suggest a large version of something.

(3) A general term for wide-bodied passenger airplanes although historically most associated with the Boeing 747 (1969).

(4) In (mostly in the US) nautical use, a forestaysail having a boom (jumbo boom) along its foot, used especially on schooners; a sail used in place of a course on a square-rigged ship, having the form of an isosceles triangle set apex downward.

(5) In engineering & mining, as drilling jumbo, a platform-mounted machine used to drill rock.

(6) As mumbo-jumbo, a historic term used of paganism, originally referring to deities or other supernatural beings worshipped some West African peoples (usually in the form of an idol representing such a being). It was later adopted to describe any speech which was either technical jargon understood only by specialists or anything genuinely meaningless or incomprehensible.

1800–1810: Of uncertain origin but there is evidence the first use of the word by English-speakers was as an imperfect echoic of what was heard by European explorers or colonists in Africa.  It entered popular use after Jumbo, an East African elephant (1860-1885) was in 1882 exhibited by PT Barnum (1810-1891) of the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus.  The name may be derived from either the Swahili jambo (matter, thing) or jumbe (chief, headman) although some sources cite the Sanskrit जम्बु (jambū or jambul) (rose apple).  Most convincing comes from the anthropological record of west-Africa where jumbo was used to describe a "clumsy, unwieldy fellow" (1823), itself possibly from a word for elephant in a West African language, perhaps the Kongo nzamba.  As a modifier (formally & informally) to impart the sense of largeness, jumbo is appended as required: jumbo jet (and jumbojet), jumbo mortgage, jumbomania, jumbo slice, superjumbo, jumbo sandwich, jumbo cigar, jumbo burger, jumbo cola et al.  Walt Disney’s musical cartoon Dumbo (1941) influenced the adoption of dumbo to mean “someone not intelligent”, the use documented by 1951 but the oral use probably pre-dates that.  Jumbo is a noun & adjective, jumboization (and jumboisation) are nouns, jumboize (and jumboise) are verbs; the noun plural is jumbos.

PT Barnum's publicity materials were created prior to "truth in advertising" laws.

The original Jumbo (the elephant) was an exhibit in London Zoo, the institution having purchased the beast from French explorers who were said to have captured it as a calf in Abyssinia in 1861.  Barnum purchased Jumbo in 1862 (much to the displeasure of the English) and immediately began in the US one of his typically extravagant advertising campaigns which emphasised both what a coup he’d achieved by wresting it from the British Empire and what an extraordinary size the creature was.  His circus toured the country with Jumbo a star attraction until in September 1885 it was killed near Saint Thomas, Ontario when struck by a freight train.

Perhaps curiously, the noun mumbo-jumbo seems not to have fallen from the linguistic treadmill, despite its origin and early colonial associations.  It entered English in 1738, based on an account of an incident in 1732 which occurred near Sami (in modern-day Gambia).  In the publications of the time, the Mumbo Jumbo was described as a costume “idol” used by men to frighten others and as coercive tool to regulate behaviour; it was used especially against women to induce their submission.  In hours of daylight, the costume was mounted on a stick placed at the outskirts of the village while by night a man would dress in it, visiting the homes of women or others deemed a problem, disputes “settled” and punishments bestowed.  Other spellings noted in the eighteenth century include Munbo Jumbo, Numbo Jumbo and Mumbo Chumbo and the original account ascribed the practice to Mandingo but linguistic anthropologists have never been able to trace an obvious Mandingo term which might be the source, the suggestions including mama dyambo (pompom-wearing ancestor) and mamagyombo (magician who exorcises troubled ancestor spirits).  It may have been borrowed from another Niger-Congo language and the European colonial transcriptions were the French moumbo-dioumbo & moumbo-ioumbo and the Portuguese mumban-jumban.  On the basis of the colonial-era accounts, the tradition (of uncertain age) must have been widespread with all settlements in the region was said to have a Mumbo Jumbo and by the mid-nineteenth century it had in English become a byword for a “superstitious object of senseless worship”, evolving by the 1890s to describe any speech which was either technical jargon understood only by specialists or anything genuinely meaningless or incomprehensible, use presumably reinforced and encouraged by some perception of association with “mumble”.  In that sense, it somewhat differed from the pseudo-Latin “hocus-pocus” which described words or incantations wholly fake and intended to deceive.  Despite the history, mumbo jumbo seems still acceptable in English and why it hasn’t yet been condemned as racist or cultural appropriation isn’t clear.

Jambo!  Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls.

Much has changed in the twenty-first century and it’s doubtful all of “You got your freshmen, ROTC Guys, preps, JV jocks, Asian nerds, cool Asians, varsity jocks, unfriendly Black hotties, girls who eat their feelings, girls who don't eat anything, desperate wannabes, burnouts, sexually active band geeks, the greatest people you will ever meet, and the worst.  Beware of The Plastics.” would appear were the Mean Girls (2004) script to be written today, mere mention of ethnicity now often deconstructed as some level of racism.  Cady (the white protagonist raised (somewhere) in Africa) uses the Swahili greeting "jambo" (from -amba (to say) which linguistic anthropologists say was probably derived from the Proto-Bantu (there’s a similar term in Zulu)) to introduce herself to a table of “Unfriendly Black Hotties”.  The script never makes explicit just where in Africa Cady may have spent her youth but this, along with another couple of cultural and linguistic clues do hint it may have been among sub-Saharan ethnic groups although whether that was intentional isn’t documented.  However, “jambo” is one of several similar words used on the continent linked both to the later evolution in English of jumbo and mumbo jumbo and it may be jumbo was either a direct phonetic spelling recorded by Europeans or just a mis-heard rendition.

The prototype of first jumbojet (Boeing 747) on show on the forecourt at the Boeing’s factory in Seattle, Washington, 1968 (left), at the Paris Air Show in 1969 with a Concorde in the background (centre) and the last 747 (a freighter), also on the Boeing forecourt, November 2022.

Jumbo was a big elephant and the word was soon used to describe large examples of other things.  In commercial use, the first use seems to have been Jumbo Cigars, sold in 1886.  The best known use in the modern age is probably jumbo-jet (also appears jumbojet), probably first used by Boeing engineers circa 1960 although the first documented reference is from 1964.  It replaced the earlier Boeing engineering-slang jumbo-707, probably because a three syllable phrase is always likely to prevail over one with seven.  In the narrow technical sense, jumbo-jet came to refer to all wide-bodied (ie multi-aisled) passenger airplanes built since the late 1960s, but, being first, it tends most to be associated with Boeing’s 747.  Thus, when in the early 2000s, the even larger Airbus 380 took to the skies, the term superjumbo (and super-jumbo) was used by some, the airframe’s point of visual differentiation from the 747 being the Boeing’s famous hump being extended along the fuselage to the tail section, creating a double-decker.  The term (which had earlier been used of the stretched 747s) however never quite caught on in the same way because the 380 was unique and a class of superjumbos thus never emerged to demand a descriptive generic term.  As it was, economics conspired against the A380 and the circumstances in which it flew were very different to those envisaged in the late 1980s when first the project was conceived for not only had advances in engineering and materials allowed a new generation of twin-jet jumbos to operate at a much lower passenger cost per mile but airports, their systems and physical infrastructure optimized around the 747’s capacity, proved unwilling to make the changes needed to accommodate higher peak demand.  After little more than a dozen years of assembly, Airbus in 2021 ceased production of A380 after some 250 had been built.

One of NASA’s Boeing 747s, adapted as a heavy-lift platform to “piggy-back” the US Space Shuttles (left).  The Soviet Union (and briefly the Russians) used the one-off Antonov An-225 Мрія (Mriya (dream or inspiration)) to piggy-back its  Буран (Buran (Snowstorm or Blizzard)), the USSR's space shuttle (right).  The An-225, with the largest wingspan and heaviest take-off weight of any aircraft ever to enter operational service, was destroyed in the early days of the Russian invasion (the 2022 "Special Military Operation”) of Ukraine.

The 747 proved more enduring a successful and was a machine which was truly revolutionary in its social consequences.  Just as Boeing’s earlier 707 (1958) had been instrumental in making trans-Continental air travel a viable and reliable means of transport for a small number of people, the economics of scale made possible by the 747 meant such trips became accessible for many more.  Between 1968 and 2022, almost 1600 were built in a variety of lengths and configurations and it was for decades the faithful workhorse of many airlines, but it ultimately fell victim to the same financial squeeze that doomed the A380, twin-engined aircraft able to carry almost as many passengers at a significantly lower cost.  By 2016 it was clear demand had dwindled and most of the production thereafter was for freight operators still attracted by the 747’s unique combination of capacity, reliability and range.  As passenger 747s progressively are retired, many will be converted to freighters, an relatively simple operation envisaged even during the design process in the 1960s.  Many flyers however noted the 747’s demise with some regret.  None denied the advantages of airframes built from composite materials nor the enhanced economy of the twin-engine configuration but for those who flew for hours above 30,000 feet (9000+ m), knowing one was in a metal cylinder with the redundancy of four engines imparted great confidence.

Lindsay’s Olives in sizes to suit.  Black olive martinis are a cult.

In commercial use, obvious comparative terms like “small”. “medium” & “large” are commonly used and “extra” is often appended to “small” & “large”.  In the sizing of clothing, “extra” is used in multiples, labelled usually as XL XXL XXXL etc to indicate ascending graduations of large (L).  With the “Extra Large”, this is on the model of the DD, DDD, FF etc bra cup descriptors used by some manufacturers although the use varies, a DD sometimes the same as an E and sometimes something between a D & E.  However, at the other end of the size range, the multiple letters work the other way, an AAA cup smaller than an AA which is smaller than an A.  Linguistically, that does make sense because with bras the multiple letters are synonymous with “extra”, the AA being extra small and the DD extra large.  The alpha-numeric nomenclature used (30A, 32D etc) is maintained presumably because something like a "Jumbo" bra might lack sales appeal.  Where manufactures want to use descriptors which indicate a larger size beyond something like extra large, they’ll trawl the alphabet, thus product packaging described as “jumbo”, “super” “mega”, colossal” “super”, “maxi” etc.  Unlike S-M-L, there’s no defined ascendant order so it might be that where one manufacturer’s jumbo is larger than their mega while with some it may be the other way round.

Jumbo spark plugs.  This was actually advertising the strength of the spark rather than the plug, some of the Jumbo line of plugs physically smaller than than some offered by the competition.  The need for higher-performance spark plugs arose as higher octane gas (petrol) permitted compression ratios to rise.