taksofon?

[David J Birnbaum]

m> Does anyone have any idea why many Russian pay phones have "taksofon"
on
> them?  I assume there is some relation to taxis, but I have already stumped
> a few native spekaers in attempting to get an answer.  Thanks for any help
> you may be able to give.

The prefix "tax-" means 'tax' or 'charge', and refers to the fact that one
pays to use a pay phone. What contemporary Americans call a "taxi" is what
was earlier called a "taxicab" (a term still in use), where "cab" is
shortened from "cabriolet," a particular type of carriage or automobile.
What we call a "meter" in a taxicab used to be called a "taximeter,"
since what it metered, or measured, was the cost, or tax, for the ride.
Typologically, the shortening of "taxicab" to "taxi" may be compared to
the shortening of "automobile" to "auto".

Cheers,

David
________________________________________________________________________

Professor David J. Birnbaum     email: djbpitt+ at pitt.edu
Department of Slavic Languages  url:   http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~djb/
1417 Cathedral of Learning      voice: 1-412-624-5712
University of Pittsburgh        fax:   1-412-624-9714
Pittsburgh, PA 15260 USA