The story
- Vulgar Latin · derived frommōtivus“moving”
- Latin · derived fromlocō
- French · derived fromlocomotif
- English todaylocomotive
From French locomotif, from Latin locō (literally “from a place”) (ablative of locus (“place”)) + Vulgar Latin mōtivus (“moving”) (see motive). In the rail transport sense, ellipsis of locomotive (steam) engine, attested from 1814.
Words from the same roots
Latinlocō all →
locomotion
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.