In a message dated 2/8/10 10:37:01 AM, healeys-request@autox.team.net
writes:
>
> Actually, "tonneau" is a french word that means litterally "barrel" (of
> wine for instance).
> It comes from the language used for the very early carriages.
> A tonneau was a car in which you stepped in in the front or in the rear.
> See there under that term
> http://www.rmc-cars.fr/load.php?lng=Fr&menu=Types%20de%20carrosserie
>
> BC
>
Thanks for the reference. Lots of fun stuff in there. So, to correct our
derivation: A tonneau is a barrel. A car with a round rear end that looks like
a barrel is called a tonneau. Hence now, the area behind the front seats on
spyders/spiders (another fun area to explore -- why is a small convertible
called by the name of an arachnid?), is called the tonneau. And we still
wind up in the same place: the area that is covered is called the tonneau, and
the cover which covers it is called a tonneau cover.
Drifting around that page, I was disappointed, however, to see cabriolet
simply shown as a modern convertible car. The original cabriolets were light
two-wheeled carriages with canvas tops.
A spyder/spider was a lightweight four-wheel open carriage, incidentally.
If you were a young squire, with a fast pacer, you'd road race against the
other young bloods to prove that your carriage horse was faster than theirs,
and of course you'd want the lightest carriage you could drive.
Now what was the original discussion about? I forget.
Gary
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