Bookmobiles

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Library vehicles fitted with shelves of books that travel to rural or underserved communities so residents can borrow reading material
2. Traveling vans stocked with volumes that visit neighborhoods, schools and farms that lack a nearby public library
3. Mobile lending libraries built into motor vehicles, carrying collections of titles from place to place for patrons who cannot easily reach a branch

Etymology: The surprise is that "bookmobile" is built from "automobile," not from anything bookish at its core. Its second half, "-mobile," comes from the Latin "mobilis," meaning "movable," which passed into French as "mobile" and was later clipped onto "auto-," the Greek-derived prefix meaning "self-moving." An automobile is therefore a self-moving vehicle, and the bookmobile is simply a book collection that has been given wheels. The first half is the plain English word "book," which goes back to Old English "bōc," so the compound joins a native word to a borrowed one. Its pattern follows the earlier model of "automobile," with the familiar word "book" substituted for the prefix, so the new term sounds like a vehicle that carries books.

Synonyms: mobile libraries, library vans