Talk:auto

Italian definition...

Veicolo in grado di muoversi autonomamente ma controllato da un essere umano.

I don't think I've ever heard this word to mean "car" in English by native English speakers. I've certainly heard Germans use it. Can anybody tell me whether it's a British, US, both, or other usage? Hippietrail 10:14, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * It's used a lot in combination to make brand names (eg, Autoglas is a windscreen-repair service, I think). True, I don't think it is much used, if at all, in English to mean "car".  It needs to be checked in the OED or other dictionaries. -- Paul G 11:11, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * It's not common in spoken English, but it's easy enough to find "auto" in writing. For instance, this book of short stories by O. Henry (~310 Kb long). Ortonmc 15:56, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * "auto" means "car" in English (American English, anyway) when used as an adjective—e.g. auto mechanic, auto repair (or is this a noun in apposition?). In modern use "auto" as a standalone noun is much rarer (though you could probably still find it) and I know it used to be used. —Muke Tever 03:55, 10 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * Well spotted! It feels like a noun to me. My brother is an auto electrician but I would probably hyphenat it. I couldn't say "that electrician is auto" or "autoer" or "more auto" etc so it can't be an adjective but it doesn't seem to live on as a lone noun anymore. Interesting... Hippietrail 08:31, 10 Mar 2004 (UTC)

From RFC
As far as I know, Japanese is not written in roman script. H. (talk) 16:49, 21 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Sure it is: it is called romaji. Used a lot in various circumstances. This word is borrowed from English out, and therefore usually written in katakana, the kana used for foreign words. Robert Ullmann 14:18, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

RFV discussion: June–August 2015
Rfv-sense self-driving car. I haven't seen it in any of the news articles on the subject, and certainly wouldn't recognize it, so if it is a real thing, some citations providing context would be useful.--Prosfilaes (talk) 16:27, 20 June 2015 (UTC)


 * If I'm not mistaken, this was coined by CGP Grey in this video (start at 5:32). I don't think it has caught on. —Mr. Granger (talk • contribs) 16:33, 20 June 2015 (UTC)


 * Basically impossible to check, given that "auto" already means car. This may be a citation (since surely non-self-driving cars are already seen more as utilities than status symbols?), but context suggests not. Smurrayinchester (talk) 10:04, 25 June 2015 (UTC)


 * RFV-failed. - -sche (discuss) 17:27, 7 August 2015 (UTC)

RFV discussion: April–May 2020
Rfv-sense "a writ". Removed by an IP. &mdash; surjection &lang;?&rang; 20:11, 1 April 2020 (UTC)


 * This was added by (now blocked) notoriously sloppy editor Luciferwildcat, who first added “writ” to Spanish Etymology 1 – clearly incorrect in view of the etymology, and also creating a duplicate with Spanish Etymology 2, which already listed the meaning. (Later undone by another editor.) Then they added it – again with blind disregard of the etymology – also to the English section. What were they thinking? --Lambiam 14:07, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

RFV-failed Kiwima (talk) 20:42, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

Spanish: auto vs carro
This page says that carro is used in Spain and Central Mexico. The page carro says emphatically that carro is not used in Central Mexico (or Spain). Which is it? (Based on Spanish Wiktionary, I suspect that this page is wrong) TJollans (talk) 14:19, 2 August 2020 (UTC)