Bloodmobile

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A vehicle specifically outfitted to gather blood donations while traveling to various sites to promote and facilitate blood donation efforts
2. An automotive unit intended for the collection of blood samples, reaching out to the community to enhance donor participation
3. A specially equipped vehicle designed to travel to different locations to collect blood donations from donors

Etymology: The "-mobile" in this word is the same element that gave us "automobile," borrowed from French "automobile," itself formed from Greek "autos" (self) and Latin "mobilis" (movable). Its use as a clipped combining form spread widely in English, so that a vehicle named for a function could be built by attaching "-mobile" to whatever it does. "Bloodmobile" is a plain example: a mobile unit carrying the equipment needed to draw blood, driven out to where donors already are rather than waiting for them to come in. The word "blood" is the older and simpler half, an inherited Old English term. Put together, the compound describes a vehicle whose entire purpose is to bring the donation process to the community. Its meaning is literal, with no figurative shift, so the interest lies in the structure itself: a single suffix that turned a whole category of vehicles into a service that could be named by its job.

Synonyms: blood donor bus