Does "auto" mean "car" in US English?

[korn]

Hi there,

there has been a discussion in the Vietnamese section about whether "auto" means "car" in English or not:

má*

auto (American English) - ô tô

It's "car" in American English since "auto" is definitely from French.

viewtopic.php?f=75&t=38686

My problem is a native English speaker (Canadian English I think) says "auto" doesn't mean "car" in American English. But my well known and dictionary says otherwise:

http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&lang=d ... earch=auto

Who is right here?

[linguoboy]

Both car and auto can mean automobile, but the former is vastly preferred to the latter in everyday language. If someone told me, "I bought a new auto", I would surmise that English was not their mother tongue. The Wiktionary entry says auto is "chiefly attributive" in this meaning and that jibes with my experience: auto only sounds natural to me in compounds, e.g. auto accident, auto manufacturer, auto dealership, auto insurance. And even in these examples, I would likely prefer car in speech.

[JackFrost]

You know, you shouldn't rely on one dictionary only. It would be more wise to have a few in mind: some bilingual ones and at least one unilingual one (it's advised that it be authoritative as well, unlike your link to a bilingual dictionary).

(Canadian English I think)

American English is my very first language, although Canadian English is just as native to me.

Anyways, I believe that throughout in the English-speaking world, it's called "car". "Auto" is pretty much only used in compound nouns as linguoboy just demonstrated.

[korn]

You know, you shouldn't rely on one dictionary only. It would be more wise to have a few in mind: some bilingual ones and at least one unilingual one (it's advised that it be authoritative as well, unlike your link to a bilingual dictionary).

Name one dictionary that doesn't say "auto" doesn't mean "car" or "automobile".

[Dormouse559]

Merriam-Webster for one, a respected dictionary publisher in the U.S. If you follow the link for English-language learners, it also says that auto is "usually used before another noun."

[JackFrost]

Name one dictionary that doesn't say "auto" doesn't mean "car" or "automobile".

Huh? I've never claimed that.

I'm saying your dictionary entry for auto is inaccurate.

[linguoboy]

You know, you shouldn't rely on one dictionary only. It would be more wise to have a few in mind: some bilingual ones and at least one unilingual one (it's advised that it be authoritative as well, unlike your link to a bilingual dictionary).

Name one dictionary that doesn't say "auto" doesn't mean "car" or "automobile".

You need to understand what dictionaries do and don't cover. Telling you what a word means is not the same as telling you how it's used. When I type "bicycle" into LEO, it gives me Fahrrad, Velo, Drahtesel, and Zweirad. Does this mean I can use any one of these words in place of "bicycle"?

[korn]

You know, you shouldn't rely on one dictionary only. It would be more wise to have a few in mind: some bilingual ones and at least one unilingual one (it's advised that it be authoritative as well, unlike your link to a bilingual dictionary).

Name one dictionary that doesn't say "auto" doesn't mean "car" or "automobile".

You need to understand what dictionaries do and don't cover. Telling you what a word means is not the same as telling you how it's used.

Indeed, in the quoted issue, I was only interested in what it means I never said anything about it's usage.

Name one dictionary that doesn't say "auto" doesn't mean "car" or "automobile".

Huh? I've never claimed that.

I'm saying your dictionary entry for auto is inaccurate.

How far is it inaccurate? Does "auto" mean "car"/ "automobile" or not? :/ .... I'm not asking or saying anything about it's usage or how often it is used or how common it is used....

[linguoboy]

Indeed, in the quoted issue, I was only interested in what it means I never said anything about it's usage.

But usage is directly relevant to that case. If auto isn't generally used on its own to mean "car", then why would it be borrowed into colloquial Vietnamese with this meaning?

[Tenebrarum]

The word ô tô in northern Vietnam came from French, korn. It has nothing to do with English. You can tell just by the way it's spelled.

[JackFrost]

How far is it inaccurate? Does "auto" mean "car"/ "automobile" or not? :/ .... I'm not asking or saying anything about it's usage or how often it is used or how common it is used....

It's inaccurate because it says "auto (Amer.) - Das Auto". It doesn't mean I am denying that "auto" as a word itself does not exist in English. It does, but never by itself. It's used with other nouns such as "auto saleman", "auto accident", auto manufacturer", etc. (just as linguoboy told you). You can also say "car saleman", "car accident", "car manufacturer", etc. But saying "the auto", "my auto", "your auto", or "her auto" isn't how we say it, unlike German ("das Auto", "mein Auto", "dein Auto"...) or Canadian French ("l'auto", "mon auto", "ton auto", etc...).

That's why I'm advising you to have a few, not just one, dictionaries in mind so you can research a bit how the words are used in a language. Take a look at Beolingus (English-German online dictionary: http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/) and Dictionary.com (online English language dictionary: http://www.dictionary.com). Again, it doesn't mean that your preferred online dictionary isn't useful. I'm just saying it would be useful to know some more just in case.

[nancyfromafrica]

auto literally means something which is automatic like a airplane set to auto pilot.
Auto also means the league of cars and bikes or vehicles. So you have auto magazine.

[linguoboy]

Auto also means the league of cars and bikes or vehicles. So you have auto magazine.

That's not true of American English or of any other dialect of English I'm familiar with. Is it really the case that in your dialect "auto" can refer to bicycles?

[alisha]

From the reference of the Cambridge dictionary, auto is a car only.