chauffeur

See also: Chauffeur

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French chauffeur.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ʃɒˈfɜː/, /ˈʃəʊfə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ʃoʊˈfɝ/, /ˈʃoʊfɚ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Homophone: shofar (some pronunciations of both words)
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)

Noun

chauffeur (plural chauffeurs)

1. A person employed to drive a private motor car or a hired car of executive or luxury class (like a limousine).
   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 3, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎^[1]:

     He fell into a reverie, a most dangerous state of mind for a chauffeur, since a fall into reverie on the part of a driver may mean a fall into a ravine on the part of the machine.

   • 1994, 2:40 from the start, in Juicy‎^[2] (Hip Hop), spoken by The Notorious B.I.G.:

     Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis
     When I was dead broke, man, I couldn't picture this
     50-inch screen, money-green leather sofa
     Got two rides, a limousine with a chauffeur

   • 2024, “Hot One”, in King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2, performed by Denzel Curry:

     I can make money from the comfort of my sofa / So much drive, now I gotta get a chauffeur

2. (firefighting) The driver of a fire truck.

   Synonym: engineer

Usage notes

As the French word chauffeur has masculine gender, a female chauffeur is sometimes called a chauffeuse or, jocularly, a chauffeuress.

Hypernyms

• (both senses): driver

Derived terms

• chauffeur driver (synonym)
• chauffeuress
• chauffeurless
• chauffeurship

Translations

person employed to drive a motor car

• Albanian: shofer (sq) m
• Arabic: سائِق (ar) m (sāʔiq)

  Hijazi Arabic: سَوَّاق m (sawwāg)

• Armenian: ավտովարորդ (hy) (avtovarord)
• Aromanian: shufer m
• Azerbaijani: sürücü (az), şofer
• Belarusian: шафёр m (šafjór), кіро́ўца m (kirówca), вадзі́цель m (vadzícjelʹ)
• Bulgarian: шофьо́р (bg) m (šofjór)
• Catalan: xofer (ca) m, xòfer (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 司機 / 司机 (zh) (sījī)

• Czech: šofér (cs) m, řidič (cs) m
• Danish: chauffør (da) c
• Dutch: privéchauffeur (nl) m
• Esperanto: ŝoforo, ŝoforino (female)
• Estonian: autojuht
• Faroese: bilstjóri m, bilførari m, sjaførur m (colloquial)
• Finnish: autonkuljettaja (fi), kuljettaja (fi), sofööri, safööri
• French: chauffeur (fr) m, chauffeuse (fr) f
• Galician: chofer m
• Georgian: მძღოლი (mʒɣoli)
• German: Chauffeur (de) m, Chauffeurin (de) f, Chauffeuse (de) f (Swiss German), Berufschauffeur m, Berufschauffeurin f, Schofför (de) m (obsolete), Schofförin (de) f (obsolete)
• Greek: οδηγός (el) m or f (odigós), σιοφέρης m (sioféris) (Cypriot)
• Hungarian: sofőr (hu)
• Iban: deriba
• Icelandic: bílstjóri m, einkabílstjóri m
• Ido: motoristo (io)
• Indonesian: supir (id), sopir (id)
• Italian: chauffeur (it) m, autista (it) m or f
• Japanese: 運転手 (ja) (うんてんしゅ, untenshu)
• Kazakh: шопыр (şopyr), жүргізуші (kk) (jürgızuşı)
• Korean: 운전사(運轉士) (ko) (unjeonsa), 기사(技士) (ko) (gisa)
• Kyrgyz: шофёр (ky) (şofyor)
• Latvian: vadītājs (lv) m, šoferis m
• Lithuanian: vairuotojas m, šoferis m
• Lombard: çofœr, autista
• Macedonian: шо́фер m (šófer), во́зач (mk) m (vózač)
• Malay: pemandu (ms), drebar, supir
• Maltese: xufier m, xufiera f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sjåfør (no) m

  Nynorsk: sjåfør m

• Occitan: chòfer, chofer
• Persian: شوفر (fa) (šofer)
• Polish: szofer (pl) m, szoferka (pl) f
• Portuguese: motorista (pt) m or f, chofer (pt) m or f
• Romanian: șofer (ro) m
• Russian: шофёр (ru) m (šofjór), персона́льный води́тель m (personálʹnyj vodítelʹ), води́тель (ru) m (vodítelʹ), води́тельница (ru) f (vodítelʹnica)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: возач m, возачица f

  Latin: vòzāč (sh) m, vozàčica (sh) f

• Sinhalese: රියදුරා (riyadurā)
• Slovak: šofér m, vodič m
• Slovene: šofer m, voznik (sl) m
• Spanish: chófer (es) m or f, chofer (es) m or f, chauffer (es) m, chafirite (es) m (despective), chafirita (es) f (despective)
• Swedish: chaufför (sv) c
• Tajik: шофёр (tg) (šofyor)
• Thai: คนขับ (kon-kàp)
• Turkish: şoför (tr), sürücü (tr)
• Turkmen: şofýor
• Ukrainian: шофе́р m (šofér), во́дій m (vódij)
• Uzbek: shofyor (uz)
• Vietnamese: tài xế (vi)
• Volapük: joför (vo), hijoför (male), jijoför (female)
• Yiddish: שאָפֿער m (shofer), שאָפֿערשע f (shofershe)

fire truck driver

• Hungarian: tűzoltóautó-vezető, tűzoltóautó-sofőr

Verb

chauffeur (third-person singular simple present chauffeurs, present participle chauffeuring, simple past and past participle chauffeured)

1. (intransitive) To be, or act as, a chauffeur (driver of a motor car).
   • 1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 75:

     "Old Pearson. He did gardening for us, and chauffeuring for my father. Such a dear old man - I've know him all my life."

2. (transitive) To transport (someone) in a motor vehicle.

   Synonyms: transport, bring, shuttle

Translations

intransitive: to be, or act as a chauffeur

• Esperanto: ŝofori
• Finnish: ajaa (fi)
• German: chauffieren (de)

transitive: to transport someone in a motor car

• Esperanto: konduki aŭtomobile, veturigi, ŝofori
• Finnish: kuljettaa (fi), ajaa (fi), kyyditä (fi)
• German: chauffieren (de), herumfahren (de) (colloquial)

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French chauffeur.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃoːˈføːr/, /ʃɑu̯ˈføːr/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: chauf‧feur
• Rhymes: -øːr

Noun

chauffeur m (plural chauffeurs, diminutive chauffeurtje n, feminine chauffeuse)

1. driver (person who drives a motorized vehicle, such as a car or a bus; usually to transport others or in a professional capacity, often both)

Derived terms

• buschauffeur
• camionchauffeur
• taxichauffeur
• vrachtwagenchauffeur

Descendants

• → Aukan: safeli
• → Caribbean Javanese: sopir
• → Indonesian: sopir
• → Javanese: ꦱꦺꦴꦥꦶꦂ (sopir)
• → West Frisian: sjauffeur

French

Etymology

From chauffer (“to warm up”) +‎ -eur.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃo.fœʁ/

• Audio (Paris); “un chauffeur”:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -œʁ

Noun

chauffeur m (plural chauffeurs, feminine chauffeuse or chauffeure)

1. (rail transport) stoker; fireman
2. driver

   chauffeur de taxi ― taxi driver

3. chauffeur (private driver)

Derived terms

• chauffard

Descendants

Descendants

• → Catalan: xofer, xòfer
• → Czech: šofér
• → Danish: chauffør
• → Dutch: chauffeur
  • → Aukan: safeli
  • → Caribbean Javanese: sopir
  • → Indonesian: sopir
  • → Javanese: ꦱꦺꦴꦥꦶꦂ (sopir)
  • → West Frisian: sjauffeur
• → English: chauffeur
• ⇒ Esperanto: ŝoforo
• → German: Chauffeur
• → Hungarian: sofőr
• → Javanese: (New Caledonian) chauffeur
• → Ladino: shofer, shofor
• → Latvian: šoferis
• → Lingala: sofɛ́lɛ
• → Lithuanian: šoferis
• → Moroccan Arabic: شيفور
• → Norwegian: sjåfør
• → Persian: شوفر (šufer)
• → Polish: szofer
• → Portuguese: chofer, chauffeur
• → Romanian: șofer
• → Russian: шофёр (šofjór), шофёръ (šofjór) — pre-1918 spelling, шофер (šofjór) — Russian spellings with е instead of ё, шо́фер (šófer) — non-standard, considered uneducated
  • → Armenian: շոֆեր (šofer), շոֆեռ (šofeṙ), շոֆէօր (šofēōr) (Western Armenian)
  • → Azerbaijani: şofer, شوفر
  • → Uyghur: shopur, شوپۇر (shopur)
• → Serbo-Croatian: шо̀фе̄р m
• → Spanish: chofer
• → Swedish: chaufför
• → Thai: โชเฟอร์ (choo-fə̂ə)
• → Turkish: şoför

Further reading

• “chauffeur”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃoˈfeɾ/ [t͡ʃoˈfeɾ]
• Rhymes: -eɾ
• Syllabification: chauf‧feur

Noun

chauffeur m or f by sense (plural chauffeurs or chauffeur)

1. (rare) alternative form of chofer

Further reading

• Seco, Manuel; Andrés, Olimpia; Ramos, Gabino (2023), “chauffeur”, in Diccionario del español actual (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA