Etymology of samochod and other related automotive words

So I have to a do a project for school which involves me picking a topic in any slavic language and discussing in a 5-7 page paper where certain words related to that topic came from. I chose Polish bo mówie po Polsku and I chose the topic of cars bo mam obsesje z samochodami. Anyway I need to find the origins of certain car related words in Polish. Anyone know where to look? or can help me with this?

Heres some words I was thinking of:

samochód
zawieszenie
paliwo
silnik
hamulce
opony
katalizator

'samochód' 'silnik' etc.... are among the countless Polish words whose meaning can be divined from its morphology or structure, as well as by its compound elements:

samo + chodzić = thing which goes by itself
silnik > siły = from the word for 'power'

etc....

o and zawieszenie is zawieszić! ok I should have thought of that in the first place. But are there any Polish words relating to cars that have been borrowed? I suppose "turbo." Ok diękuje bardzo Lyzko.

A czy jest jakiesz książek albo cos na internecie gdzie mogę znaleźć etymology w Polskim słow?

Also in addition to doing this in Polish I need to do the same thing in another slavic language and compare the same words in Polish. I was thinking about doing a simple language that is similar to Polish..Czech?

Thankyou

Are you writing this paper in Polish?

Slovak would be easier. Or if you want a ridiculously simple Slavic language, choose Macedonian.

It would be interesting to compare the vocabulary of the car in Polish and Czech. I don't know Czech, but, as usual, some Czech terms might sound funny to the native speaker of Polish. One of such terms is "vozidlo" which means "samochód", or "letadlo" which means "samolot". The common Polish terms for 'car' are also 'wóz' or 'auto'. The slang words for it are 'bryka' or 'fura'. Most vocabulary referring to the car seems to be of Polish origin: skrzynia biegów (gearbox), podwozie, bagażnik, kierownica, kierunkowskaz, but 'karoseria' seems to be of French origin (carrosserie = body of a car).

obvious loan word. Think of things like 'akumlator' for battery, auto-bus etc.

@clifborder4fm try search in google like that:
<word> etymologia

you will get at the top various dictionaries, sometimes with etymology of the <word>.
For example for:
samochód etymologia
you will get this:
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoch%C3%B3d

Funny, but I don't know if reliable:


Słowo "samochód" was choosen in the contest before WWII. The name "samojedź" which would be more appropriate instead of "samochód", wasn't choosen because it supposedly means(or is close to) "cannibal" in ancient polish :-)

Cool, isn't it? :-)

Samochód

Słowo samochód powstało wskutek wygrania rozpisanego przed wojną konkursu na typowo polskie słowo określające automobil. Jak nietrudno zauważyć, pochodzi od słów sam i chodzić, czyli określa pojazd z własnym napędem.

The word samochód was coined before the war. People, who entered a word contest then, were to find the best polish equivalent for the French automobil. The contestants came up with two propositions, the words were both basically calques of the French original. The first proposition samochód, the second one somojedź. Although the last one more close to the French original, it was rejected because in old Polish it meant man-eater. So samochód was accepted as the name for a car.

Zawieszenie - Probably a claque from the French word suspensions

Paliwo - Word first noted in 1861, artificially coined, originated from verb palić, i.e. to burn. It was used as a translation of the French word combustible, or

the German word brenn-stoff. Used beginning from the era of steam-engine.

Silnik - Modern equivalent of the other polish word motor, which comes directly from the Latin word meaning "mover". Silnik is the noun derived form the verb siła, meaning strength, power.

Hamulce - Brakes. First noted in 1575. At that time, it meant a piece of wood to block the wheels of a car. Originates from Middle-High-German - ham-holtz (old German hamm-holz), currently hemm-kette, hemm-schuh or hemm-stange.

Opony - Tyres. In the current technical sense, it was first used in the first half of the 20th century. Originaly (14th to the 19th century) it meant a mat, curtain, veil, cover, coat.

Katalizator - Catalyst. From the verb - katalizować, directely from English - to catalyze, but the word comes from Greek noun: katálysis, meaning decomposition.

just to pick a nit or two:

vozidlo = pojazd
auto, automobil = samochód

;-p

thanks for the info guys! didn't know samochod was similar to cannibal thats funny! Yes this paper is in English. Any I'm doing Czech to compare the words.

I supose no one would know the origin for the Czech word for brakes (hamulec) "brzda" would they?

Bryka comes from a carriage and fura from a horse cart.