For the last article in this American & British English series, we turn to a vocabulary set that evolved after America achieved independence from the UK, and as such has many differences: motor vehicle parts.
In American English, the fender frames the wheel well, preventing mud or rocks being thrown up by the rapidly turning tire. It is the source of the term “fender bender,” meaning a minor accident. In British English, the fender is called the “wing.”
In the UK, before cars were invented, one main form of transport was the horse-drawn carriage. The driver would store his boots in the “boot locker,” and over time this phrase would be shortened to the “boot.” In the US in the past, the main storage space was a trunk attached to the back of the car. Over time, storage space was integrated into the back of the car, and became known as the trunk. In British English, this space is called the “boot.”
The metal part covering the engine is named after soft coverings for the head: “hood” in American English, from the Old English word hod, related to the Dutch hoed (hat), and “bonnet” in British English, from the Old French word bonet (cloth used as a headdress).
(Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)
在「美式英文與英式英文」的最後一個單元，我們要介紹一組詞彙：汽車零件。這些詞彙是在美國脫離英國獨立後演變而來的，因此有許多差異。
在美式英文中，「fender」（擋泥板）包住了輪艙（wheel well），防止快速旋轉的輪胎讓泥沙或石子飛濺出來。它是「fender bender」一詞的來源，表示擦撞、小車禍事故。英式英文則稱擋泥板為「wing」。
在英國，汽車尚未發明時的主要運輸工具是馬車。駕車的人將其靴子放在靴子櫃（boot locker）中，久而久之，該片語縮短為「boot」。過去美國的汽車，其主要置物空間是裝在車子後面的大行李箱（trunk）。後來，置物空間被整合到汽車的後部，並稱為「trunk」（後車箱）。英式英文則稱後車箱為「boot」。
金屬製的引擎蓋，其美式英文名稱卻是來自柔軟的衣物──風帽（hood），源於古英語字「hod」，與荷蘭文「hoed」（帽子）有關。引擎蓋在英式英文中稱為「bonnet」，源自古法語字「bonet」（用作頭巾的布）。
（台北時報林俐凱譯）
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