The story
- French · borrowed fromcabotage“coasting trade”
- English todaycabotage
Borrowed from French cabotage (“coasting trade”), from caboter (“to travel by the coast”). It originally (16th c.) referred to restrictions allowing only French ships to trade or transport between French ports. Other countries adopted this concept and extended it to land and air travel.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.