Decker

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈdɛkə(ɹ)/

Definitions

1. A multi-story vehicle, typically a bus, structured to enhance capacity for passengers or goods by incorporating additional levels
2. A bus or similar vehicle designed with multiple levels to maximize space for transporting passengers or cargo efficiently
3. A type of transportation unit featuring additional floors to accommodate more individuals or merchandise in a compact layout

Etymology: A decker is a bus with two levels, and the word is simply a compound of "deck" and the agent suffix "-er," but the joke is in the deck itself. The deck is a floor or level of a ship, and English borrowed the word from Dutch sailors' language, where "dec" meant a covering, the way a roof covers a house. So a double-decker has, in effect, two covered floors stacked one on another, the same nautical image carried ashore onto the street. The suffix does most of the work here. "-er" comes down from Old English "-ere," which marked a person or thing that performs an action, so the word's own internal logic is a thing that does the deck-ing, or more loosely, a thing built with decks. English has long used this pattern for vehicles and objects with a defining feature, as in "two-decker," a ship with two decks, which appears earlier than the bus.

Synonyms: layer, story