Why was a certain type of car called a "station wagon"? Where did that name come from? It seems to me that if I were hearing that term for the first time, it wouldn't make the product appealing: who would want to spend big bucks for a "wagon"?

Interesting question...I hadn't thought about it before.

The OED says originally a station wagon was "A type of horse-drawn covered carriage, used for conveying passengers," apparently from about 1894 or so. Then in 1929 the term seemed to evolve into "an estate car; a saloon motor car with rear door or doors, capable of carrying goods as well as passengers." In a citation from 1901 (Varnish 15 July 253/1): " Then we would all know the difference between a cabriolet and an extension~top phaeton; a station wagon and a rockaway." Does anyone know what those differences are?

I'd always assumed it was a descriptive designation. Something to go pick up stuff with at the train station. When you think about it mini-van is rather unappealing, too. If folks hadn't fled the urban centers for the suburbs, station magons probably wouldn't have become popular in spite of their name.

I've always assumed that they appeared, not so much as a product of the suburbs, but from the practice of the rich of holding country house weekends. The guests would be met at the local station by a carriage (later, of course, a motor car) that had to be capable of carrying the several people who arrived on the same train, plus their multiple pieces of luggage.

Nowadays of course the visitors would usually drive down and the station wagon has evolved accordingly, being used more by suburbanites, but it is still often used in the country when the need is for carrying a larger than normal number of passengers and/or luggage.

My thought is that the term is Australian for a utilitarian vehicle for use on a "station," or what we would call a farm or ranch. IOW, they were the progenitors of what's now called a Sport Utility Vehicle. Silly term, that, since damned few of them are anything but too tall family cars.

Asa the station wagon driver

Some of the newer SUVs look just like station wagons used to look. It's funny how what goes around comes around.

Has anyone heard of a rockaway?

Rockaway? Sure! It's a town on the coast!

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Has anyone heard of a rockaway?

I hadn't, but I did find some pictures(look near the bottom, about 3-4 pics up).

Cool! Thanks, CW.

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My thought is that the term is Australian for a utilitarian vehicle for use on a "station,"

You may be thinking of the Australian "ute" (from "utility vehicle"), which is what most of us would call a pick-up truck. However, that has an open flat-bed load-carrying area, unlike the station wagon.

Maybe, arnie, but since a farm is a "station" in Oz...

Here's another British term I'd almost forgotten about: http://www.pestalozzi.net/sb/about_term_2.htm

So, Arnie, as in Asa's link, do you sometimes call a station wagon a "brake" in England?

I've heard of "shooting brake" but never just "brake" (or "break"). However I don't move in the same sort of society as those apt to need a shooting brake. The normal word is "station wagon".

Same as arnie. Actually forreason's I've never been able to work out my Dad calls any estate car a shooting brake.

What would one call such a vehicle if one were to install privvies in the rear seats?