break (say it like you’re Scottish)
Language: French
Meaning: station wagon
Apart from describing what our Škoda does, break also describes what it is. This term for station wagon has its origin in English where breaking describes the training of horses to accept being ridden and handled by humans. The first vehicles called breaks appeared a couple hundred years ago as simple stripped-down carriages or wagons that were used similarly to train horses to accept harnessing and work in teams to pull something.
Eventually this term expanded to include a whole class of small carriages. A typical form, called a hunting break or shooting break, “was designed to carry the driver and a footman or gamekeeper at the front facing forward, and up to six sportsmen on longitudinal benches, with their dogs, guns and game borne along the sides in slatted racks.”¹
In the age of automobiles, manufacturers created a body style for sports cars also called a hunting or shooting break. The idea was that sportsmen, whether they be hunters or golfers, would need more room in the trunk than would be provided by a normal sports car. The term “break” was subsequently adopted in French-speaking countries as a general term for all station wagon body styles.²