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Your Quirks and Why-Do-I-Do-Thats

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Zingoleb:
The irony of Americanised words taking over the English language amuses me greatly.

pwhodges:
Of course, some of those "American" words are ones that we English gave away when we no longer wanted them, like "fall" for autumn or "trunk" for (car) boot.

Carl-E:
Trunk was originally a descriptive term...





How it became a "boot" is beyond me...

pwhodges:
From the OED (talking about early coaches):  "boot (b). An uncovered space on or by the steps on each side, where attendants sat, facing sideways; later, a low outside compartment before or behind the body of the vehicle."

This goes back at least to the 1600s; there might be a relationship with boot-locker, perhaps where the passengers stored their boots on entering.

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