Sports Coaches Are Named After a Hungarian Village
A coach is a bus, a carriage, or a trainer. All three go back to Kocs, the Hungarian town where a new kind of carriage was built.
A coach is a long-distance bus, a horse-drawn carriage, or someone who trains others. The chain is unbroken and unlikely: the village of Kocs in Hungary gave its name to a well-sprung carriage, *kocsi*; the carriage name spread across Europe; and in 1830s Oxford slang a private tutor became a coach because he carried a student through an exam. Sport borrowed the tutor sense later in the century.
- A long-distance bus. *The coach to Bristol.*
- A carriage. *A horse-drawn coach.*
- A trainer. *The national coach.*
- To train. *She coached the team.*
- Kocs — the Hungarian village. *The source name.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | coach | A team coach. |
| Plural | coaches | Three coaches. |
| Verb | coach | Coach the side. |
| Noun | coaching | Private coaching. |
| Hungarian | kocsi | From Kocs. |
- The coach leaves at six.British bus.
- He coached her through the interview.Training.
- Kocsi meant a carriage from Kocs.Etymology.
Places that became words
- Coach — Kocs, Hungary
- Denim — Nîmes, France
- Cardigan — the Earl of Cardigan
- Marathon — a plain in Greece
- Bikini — an atoll in the Pacific
French *coche*, from Hungarian *kocsi*, meaning of Kocs, a village where such carriages were made. The tutor sense is 1830s university slang.
Why is a trainer called a coach?
From Oxford student slang, where a private tutor was said to carry a student through exams, like a carriage.
Is a coach the same as a bus?
In Britain a coach is for longer journeys, with more comfort. A bus serves local routes.