Taxi

A Taxi generally is a form of transport where one pays for conveyance. This sense of the word is a shortened form of "taximeter". A passenger pays the amount of money shown in the meter, or in some cases he/she pays a flat fee.

Etymology

The word taxi comes from Thurn und Taxis, a noble german family which had the monopoly of German Empire's mail system from 1490 to 1867. Their italian ancestor was named "Torriani" like Torre and had a badger (Italian = tasso) as coat of arms. The tower (Italian = torre) became Thurn and the badger (Italian = tasso) became the name Taxis.

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Taximeter is the official name for the device which measures the distance travelled and time taken in order to calculate the price to be charged for the journey. The name comes from Greek metron = "measure".

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