Taxonomy
Etymological curiosities
4 entries
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Book VI
Gardner-Serpollet
The most snake-sounding name in automotive history means wild thyme
Léon Serpollet built the finest steam cars in the world and set a land speed record at Nice in 1902 in a machine shaped like an egg. His name…
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Book VI
Bolwell Nagari
It sounds exactly like the Sanskrit for serpent. It is not the Sanskrit for serpent.
Bolwell, an Australian glass-fibre specialist, named its Ford V8 sports car Nagari. Every reader of Indian mythology stops dead at that word. The…
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Book VII
Adder — unclaimed
Britain built a car called Cobra and ignored the only venomous snake it actually has
The adder is Britain’s only venomous snake. It is small, shy, beautifully marked, and found from Cornwall to the Arctic Circle. British car…
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Book VII
Asp — unclaimed
Three letters. A queen. An entire empire changing hands.
The shortest available serpent name and among the most loaded. Cleopatra is said to have died by the bite of an asp, though which animal that word…