【编者按】 谈到“汽车”，人们的头脑中会浮现出众多不同功能，外型及品牌各异的车辆。“汽车”这个词到底如何来的，我们可以从Wiki百科中可以找到一丝线索。

An automobile (via French from Greek auto, self and Latin mobilis moving, a vehicle that moves itself rather than being moved by another vehicle or animal) or motor car (usually shortened to just car) is a wheeled passenger vehicle that carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods. However, the term is far from precise because there are many types of vehicles that do similar tasks.

【中文注解】

在英语中，“汽车（automobile）”这个单词是由两部分构成的，是经法语从希腊语中借过来的“auto”（本意自己的），以及由拉丁语“mobilis”（本意移动的）。因此从这个单词我们就不难得出“汽车”的定义，即它是一种可以自主移动，不需要其他机动车辆或动物牵引的车辆。

“motor car”，或简称“Car”，是一种拥有自己的发动机及轮胎的乘用工具。它的大多数定义都特指在公路上行走，一般拥有4个轮胎，主要用于运载1-8名乘客而不是运载货物的车辆。事实上，汽车这个词的定义很难用精准的概念描述出来，因为现实生活中有着各种各样不同的机动车辆，从事着相似的运输任务。