• JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    I suppose you’re right, though while I appreciate that terminology and language in general changes over time, I don’t think it’s right to call something with a motor but without pedals a bike. Along the same train of thought, we don’t call cars ‘horseless carriages’ anymore.

    Unlike conventional bicycles, we don’t have people riding about in horseless carriages. It’s a deprecated technology, whereas bikes with pedals aren’t, and it seems wrong to reappropriate the term.

    For modern cars, motors are a requirement. If the first horseless carriages made a resurgence, I doubt we’d be calling them cars, since they had no motors.

      • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        My point was more to make a Flintstones joke than anything.

        But yes, carriage becomes car. A new term derived from an old one. In this case however, there’s no derivation, only misappropriation. ‘Antic Scooter’ would be more appropriate. Though ‘Two Wheel’ might have been ideal.