e of a carriage, chariot, &c., and to the
carrying-part of a balloon. With some specific qualification (tram-car,
street-car, railway-car, sleeping-car, motor-car, &c.) it is combined to
serve as a general word instead of carriage or vehicle. From Ireland
comes the "jaunting-car," which is in general use, both in the towns,
where it is the commonest public carriage for hire, and in the country
districts, where it is employed to carry the mails and for the use of
tourists. The gentry and more well-to-do farmers also use it as a
private carriage in all parts of Ireland. The genuine Irish jaunting-car
is a two-wheeled vehicle constructed to carry four persons besides the
driver. In the centre, at right angles to the axle, is a "well" about 18
in. deep, used for carrying parcels or small luggage, and covered with a
lid which is usually furnished with a cushion. The "well" provides a low
back to each of the two seats, which are in the form of wings placed
over each wheel, with foot boards hanging outside the wheel on hinges,
so that when not in use they can be turned up over the seats, thus
reducing the width of the car (sometimes very necessary in the narrow
country roads) and protecting the seats from the weather. The passengers
on each side sit with their backs to each other, with the "well" between
them. The driver sits on a movable box-seat, or "dicky," a few inches
high, placed across the head of the "well," with a footboard to which
there is usually no splash-board attached. A more modern form of
jaunting-car, known as a "long car," chiefly used for tourists, is a
four-wheeled vehicle constructed on the same plan, which accommodates as
many as eight or ten passengers on each side, and two in addition on a
high box-seat beside the driver. In the city of Cork a carriage known as
an "inside car" is in common use. It is a two-wheeled covered carriage
in which the passengers sit face to face as in a wagonette. In remote
country districts the poorer peasants still sometimes use a primitive
form of vehicle, called a "low-backed car," a simple square shallow box
or shelf of wood fastened to an axle without springs. The two wheels are
solid wooden disks of the rudest construction, generally without the
protection of metal tires, and so small in diameter that the body of the
car is raised only a few inches from the ground.

CARABINIERS, originally mounted troops of the French army, armed with
the carabine (carbine). In 169