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chauffeur

driver, chauffeur

noun shoh-FUHR Less Common
Travel & Places Transportation

Origin: French chauffer (to heat) — early automobiles had to be stoked like furnaces

Usage Note

Chauffeur is borrowed directly into English, though in French it simply means any driver (chauffeur de taxi, chauffeur de bus). The English sense of a private, uniformed driver corresponds to chauffeur particulier in French. The feminine form is une chauffeuse, though chauffeure is also accepted in Quebec French.

Examples

"Le chauffeur attend devant l'hôtel."

Natural Translation

The driver is waiting in front of the hotel.

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