If you can read this, you almost certainly know the French word for a professional car driver, since the same word is used in English. driverUnlike English nouns, French nouns have masculine and feminine forms.EUR This ending definitely points to one of the former.So what do you call a woman who drives a car? driver Unless you’re referring to something like a lounge chair by a fireplace, that would be a natural choice. coachThe driver’s alias is GarageThe building also has an arched entrance (this architectural detail is particularly Port).
As is so often the case, the difficulty in identifying the right term here reflects the rarity of the underlying concept. In many parts of the world today, chauffeurship is not considered the most feminine of professions. That was even truer in early 20th-century Paris, when a woman made history by becoming the first to get a taxi licence, or when a man was a taxi driver. In 1908 Motor Car JournalParis correspondent of One Mademoiselle Gaby Pollen, it is noted, “obtained a taxi driver’s license from the police station,” and at the time of writing “her example was followed by Madame Decourcel.”
According to Jeroen Booij of PreWarCar.com:However, “in 1906 three women are said to have begun their apprenticeships to drive motor carriages in the City of Lights; one woman named Madame Dufour-Charnier is said to have already received her degree in February 1907.” However, Madame Inès Decourcel “is believed to have been the first to obtain a taxi licence in April 1908, becoming the first woman in history to drive a taxi on the streets of Paris. In fact, she appears on numerous postcards sent from Paris, listed as the first woman, and there were numerous newspaper articles making this claim.”Female DriverAfter seeing such a story, Le JournalAnother woman, who began driving in 1906, “wrote a particularly angry letter to the newspapers, claiming that it was she, Mademoiselle Gaby Pollen, and not Madame Decourcel, who earned the title.”
A commenter at PreWarCar.com wanted to clarify the issue. Given that the automobile itself was still a novelty at the time, one commenter suspected there was some confusion as to “whether everyone named held a carriage or taxi license,” explaining that Pollen and Decourcel “both reportedly obtained their taxi licenses in the spring of 1908.” While the photogenic and somewhat eccentric Pollen may have been the first to start, “Madame Decourcel’s claim to fame was being the first to obtain both a carriage and a taxi ‘licence.'”Garage‘ and motor ‘driverAnother commenter added that, whatever the Académie Française might have termed it, it was “an astonishing achievement for its time.”
Via MessyNessy
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Based in Seoul, Colin MaOnershall Writing and broadcastingHe has written papers on cities, languages, and cultures, and his projects include the Substack newsletter. Books about cities And books A city without a state: Walking through 21st-century Los Angeles. Follow us on Twitter CollinhamOnershall or Facebook.
