Etymology

Cadillac converter

Ca·dil·lac con·vert·er

Today it means: Synonym of catalytic converter (“chamber containing a finely divided platinum catalyst in which carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons from vehicle exhaust are oxidized to carbon dioxide”). Full definition →

Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

From the similarity between catalytic and Cadillac (“brand of luxury automobile”), probably originally a mondegreen (“error arising from the mishearing of a phrase”) and used humorously to allude to the high cost of catalytic converters.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.