Minicars

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Very small automobiles, or tiny model vehicles used as toys and collectibles, often built at a fraction of full scale
2. Compact little cars, including miniature replicas of real vehicles produced as playthings for children and hobbyists
3. Diminutive motor vehicles or scale model automobiles, typically much smaller than standard cars and sold as toys

Etymology: "Minicar" is simply the plural form of the noun "minicar," so the core history belongs to its parts. The word is a compound of "mini-" and "car." The "car" element traces back through Middle English "carre" and Anglo-Norman "carre" to Latin "carrus," a wheeled vehicle, and before that to Gaulish "karros" and Proto-Celtic "karrosz," which points to a Celtic origin for the wheeled cart that Romans borrowed. The prefix "mini-" is a different story. It came into English as a shortened form of "miniature," which entered English through Italian "miniatura" and descends from Latin "minium," a red lead pigment used in manuscript illumination. Over centuries, "miniature" came to mean anything small in scale, and English speakers clipped it into "mini-" to attach to other nouns. Put together, "minicar" describes a small-scale car, a meaning that fits neatly with the toy vehicles and miniature models the word now names.

Synonyms: microcar