chauffeur

See also: Chauffeur

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French chauffeur.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃɒˈfɜː/, /ˈʃəʊfə/
• IPA^(key): /ʃoʊˈfɝ/, /ˈʃoʊfɚ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• 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.

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

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

• chauffeuress
• chauffeurless
• chauffeurship

Translations

a person employed to drive a motor car

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

  Hijazi Arabic: سَوَّاق m (sawwāg)

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

  Mandarin: 司機／司机 (zh) (sījī), 司机 (zh) (sījī)

• Czech: šofér (cs) m, řidič (cs) m
• Dutch: privéchauffeur m
• Esperanto: ŝoforo
• Estonian: autojuht
• Faroese: bilstjóri m, bilførari m, sjaførur m (colloquial)
• Finnish: autonkuljettaja (fi), kuljettaja (fi)
• French: chauffeur (fr) m, chauffeuse (fr) f
• Galician: chofer m
• Georgian: მძღოლი (mʒɣoli)
• German: Chauffeur (de) m, Chauffeurin (de) f, Berufschauffeur m, Berufschauffeurin f, (Swiss German) Chauffeuse (de) f, Schofför (de) m, Schofförin f
• Hungarian: sofőr (hu)
• Iban: deriba
• Icelandic: bílstjóri m, einkabílstjóri m
• Ido: motoristo
• Indonesian: supir (id), sopir (id)
• Interlingue:
• Italian: chauffeur (it), autista (it)
• Japanese: 運転手 (ja) (うんてんしゅ, untenshu)
• Kazakh: шопыр (şopyr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 운전사 (ko) (unjeonsa)
• Kyrgyz: шофёр (ky) (şofyor)
• Latvian: vadītājs (lv) m, šoferis m
• Lithuanian: vairuotojas m, šoferis m
• Lombard: çofœr, autista
• Macedonian: шо́фер m (šófer), во́зач m (vózač)
• Malay: pemandu, drebar, supir
• Maltese: xufier m, xufiera f
• Occitan: chòfer, chofer
• Persian: شوفر (fa) (šofer)
• Polish: szofer (pl) m
• Portuguese: motorista (pt) m or f, chofer (pt)
• 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

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

• Slovak: šofér m, vodič m
• Slovene: šofer m, voznik (sl) m
• Spanish: chófer (es) m, chofer (es) m
• 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, (♀) jijoför
• Yiddish: שאָפֿער m (shofer), שאָפֿערשע f (shofershe)

fire truck driver

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

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

   Synonyms: transport, bring, shuttle

Translations

intransitive: to be, or act as a chauffeur

• Finnish: ajaa (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: chauffieren (de)

transitive: to transport someone in a motor car

• Finnish: kuljettaa (fi), ajaa (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: chauffieren (de), herumfahren (colloquial)

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French chauffeur.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃoːˈføːr/, /ʃɑu̯ˈføːr/

• chauffeur:

  (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)

Derived terms

• buschauffeur
• camionchauffeur
• taxichauffeur
• vrachtwagenchauffeur

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French

Etymology

chauffer (“to warm up”) +‎ -eur.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃo.fœʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -œʁ

Noun

chauffeur m (plural chauffeurs, feminine chauffeuse)

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

   chauffeur de taxi

   taxi driver

3. chauffeur

Derived terms

• chauffard

Descendants

• → Czech: šofér
• → Dutch: chauffeur
• → English: chauffeur
• → German: Chauffeur
• → Norwegian: sjåfør
• → Persian: شوفر (šufer)
• → Polish: szofer
• → Portuguese: chofer
• → Romanian: șofer
• → Russian: шофёр (šofjór)
• → Serbo-Croatian: шофер, шо̀фе̄р m
• → Spanish: chofer
• → Swedish: chaufför
• → Thai: โชเฟอร์ (choo-fə̂ə)

Further reading

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

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Spanish

Noun

chauffeur m or f (plural chauffeurs or chauffeur)

1. Alternative form of chofer