# Origin of the term bus? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 21, 2000, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-bus/6397 "2000-01-21T00:42:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2000, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-bus/6397/1 "2000-01-21T00:42:00Z")
I was listening to a song about the American Gold Rush. The song mentioned “Get on the bus.”. When was the term bus first apllied to transportation, and to what type of object? Don’t give me the smart ass reply of bus either. This is a serious question, or I’d be in MPSIMS. * * * I’m only your wildest fear, from the corners of your darkest thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![TBone2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@TBone2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBone2)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2000, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-bus/6397/2 "2000-01-21T00:54:00Z")
The term ‘bus’ is a shortened version of the word ‘omnibus,’ taken directly from the Latin. The Latin word means ‘for all,’ and in the case of a bus as we think of one today, it signifies ‘transportation for all,’ or at least for a large number. The longer version has several other meanings, but is still used, especially in England, to describe a large vehicle designed to carry passengers. As for WHEN the term came into general use, I dunno. But I’ll bet a transfer and some exact change that the SD’ers will come through for you! * * * _I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free…_ T ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2000, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-bus/6397/3 "2000-01-21T00:58:00Z")
The term is an abreviation of the Latin _omnia_, meaning _all,_ which in the plural dative becomes _omnibus_, meaning _for all_. _Omnibus_ became a term for a vehicle designed for mass trasportation, and it was shortened through folk etymology to _bus_, which I find ironic because the root word is dropped in favor of the suffix. This would be, by rough comparison, as if the english _potatoes_ became known as _es_. ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2000, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-bus/6397/4 "2000-01-21T01:10:00Z")
I happen to be reading Bram Stoker’s _Dracula_ lately, and in one journal entry, Mina Harker writes: “We came back to town quietly, riding a 'bus to Hyde Park Corner.” Stoker wrote _Dracula_ in 1897, so it seems plain that the name was already in common usage. And I’d bet Mina’s “'bus” was horse-drawn, too. * * * \>\< DARWIN \> \_\_ **L\_\_\_L** ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2000, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-bus/6397/5 "2000-01-21T01:23:00Z")
The songs I’m listening to are based on the later 19th century. I was figuring bus would refer to a horse drawn vehical of mass transit, but back to how long ago? Thanks for the current input. * * * I’m only your wildest fear, from the corners of your darkest thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2000, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-bus/6397/6 "2000-01-21T01:53:00Z")
The OED cites bus to 1830 and omnibus to 1809 (in a citation that indicates omnibus may have been in French a short while before that). * * * Tom~ ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2000, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-bus/6397/7 "2000-01-21T02:06:00Z")
Does the use of the term in electronics, e.g. \*data bus[/], derive from the vehicle or does it hark back to the original Latin? Or is it unrelated? I have seen the term _buss bar_ refer to a large, usually copper, conductor that carried a lot of current. Maybe that’s the source. I can see the vehicle reference in that a bus (the vehicle) is the thing that gets you everywhere in a standard fashion, which is, in a way, what a computer bus does. Or, in the original sense of “all”, it could refer to the thing that has all the power, signals and data, etc. Or, it could be that any large conductor or cable was a bus from the _buss bar_ sense. ## Does anyone know which, if any, of these alternatives is correct? That’ll do, pig. That’ll do. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2000, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-term-bus/6397/8 "2000-01-21T03:21:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by tomndebb: > **The OED cites bus to 1830 and omnibus to 1809 (in a citation that indicates omnibus may have been in French a short while before that).** Damn. Does this mean I have to chuck my _Dictionary of Word Origins_? > [@](#): > > page 88: **bus** [19] _Bus_ is, of course, short for _omnibus_. The first person on record as using it was the British writer Harriet Martineau, who spelled it _buss_: ‘if the station offers me a place in the buss.’ _Weal and Woe in Garveloch_ 1832. _Omnibus_ itself was borrowed from French, where it was first applied in 1828 to a _voiture omnibus_, literally ‘carriage for everyone’ (_omnibus_ is the dative plural of Latin _omnis_ ‘all’). Both dates way off from OED. :eek: * * * Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99. “We are here! You are saved!” --R. & F.