Oops, I meant Sunday.

Shades of Sherlock Holmes.....I'll take a stab at it, hack comes from hackney a horse especially bred for pulling carriages or, if not the horse hackney carriage a horse driven carriage used for hire.

Annette

Yep, I agree with Annette!

Happy mother's day everyone-and to your wife, TM!

Sounds good to me, and ditto Mom's Day!

Yes, I'm with Annette. Now, what is 'cab' short for??

Nancy.

Mmmmmmm, another name for a horse drawn vehicle, cabbie would be the driver?

Annette

I may be wrong, but I think that hackney refers to the rig, or harness of the horse. Think of hackneyed prose, or a hack writer.

Yes, Annette, another name for a horse-drawn carriage, but cabbie comes out of cab, the short form. Not sure where taxi came from, though...anyone??

Nancy.

Hack comes from hackney, which, like a lot of old words, has different meanings and different thoughts about its origin.

From Wikipedia: The name 'hackney' was once thought to be an anglicized derivative of French haquene a horse of medium size recommended for lady riders; however, current opinion is that it is derived from the village name Hackney (now part of London).

The growler was a type of four-wheel, enclosed carriage drawn by two horses used as a hackney carriage, that is as a vehicle for hire with a coachman. It is distinguished from a cab, hansom cab or cabriolet, in that those had only two wheels.

From Merriam-Webster:

hackney-
1 a : a horse suitable for ordinary riding or driving
b : a trotting horse used chiefly for driving
c often capitalized: any of an English breed of rather compact usually chestnut, bay, or brown high-stepping horses
2 obsolete : one that works for hire
3 a carriage or automobile kept for hire

The word taxi came from the taximeter, the device that calculates the fare. It was invented by German Wilhelm Bruhn in 1891.

Is that more than you needed to know?

for Annette, Cynthia, Calamity J, and Nancy.

Thanks for playing this weekend.

TM

Never more than I needed to know!! Love it - thanks TM.

Nancy.

Ha Nancy-you took the words right out of my mouth-really...the exact words I was thinking before I scrolled down to see your response.

Won't repeat any except the last. Thanks TM!