What is the correct term for the internal combustion powerplant that propels an automobile? Should we call it an engine or a motor? Is either term acceptable, or neither? Here’s the view of one magazine editor in 1896, and his take may surprise you.
If you want to annoy some car people, call an automobile engine a “motor.” It’s practically an insult to some ears. Here in the automotive world, a sort of tradition has arisen that if a machine’s powerplant runs on hydrocarbon fuel, it’s an engine, and if it runs on electrical energy, it’s a motor. This, despite the fact that there is no particular etymological basis for this distinction.
Somehow the idea simply developed over time, despite the long standing of popular terms including motor vehicle, motorcar, and motorcycle. Hey, we never said it was logical, or supported by the dictionary, necessarily, but it is a widely held view: gasoline equals engine; electric equals motor, and they said so.
This distinction in terms isn’t obeyed everywhere. In drag racing and NASCAR, for example, you will hear mechanics speaking adoringly of their motors, and there are some regional variations in word usage as well. The engine vs. motor debate, if you can call it that, continues to this day.
Thus it was interesting to find this short item recently in the December 1896 of Horseless Age magazine. Here an unnamed editor weighs in with his view on the terms engine and motor, and this writer approaches the issue from an entirely different angle:
So in the mind of at least one automotive wordsmith over a century ago, the word engine seemed archaic and backward, a relic of the steam age, while the term motor seemed sleek and modern. To his ear, anyway. That’s a rather different view than we have today. What’s your term of choice here in 2015? Engine or motor?
Like so many things in life which we humans choose to fuss over, it probably really makes no difference, yet in my six plus decades, I was “taught” that an engine is mechanical, and a motor is electric.
Not surprisingly, it never entered my mind that engine was an archaic term that should be relegated to steam only. The author makes a good point but I try to adhere to the rule that motors are strictly electrical. The distinction has been unimportant for a hundred years but is becoming relevant again.
There is no such rule that motors are strictly electrical. What about air motors, hydraulic motors, vacuum motors? What about motor cars, motor trucks, motor vehicles, motorboats, motorcycles, motor laws, ad infinitum? There’s no dictionary basis for the alleged rule. It’s just a myth that somehow developed and people never gave it much thought.
ICE and motor convey two different forms of power. As Andy implies with hybrids and all-electrics becoming more normal it becomes more important to differentiate the two and this is a clean, proven way to do it. Electric motor; gasoline, diesel or Hydrogen (internal combustion) engine.
I think this is kind of silly. A motor is defined as ” a machine, especially one powered by electricity or internal combustion that supplies motive power for a vehicle or stationary device”, while an engine is ” a machine with moving parts that converts power into motion”. It seems, electrical or hydraulic power was always a motor, and any other power was an engine. I think both are acceptable for vehicle power and probably depends more on what your father called them.
I have no explanation for it but when people call an engine a motor, it sounds ignorant and technically ignorant to me. I associate it with people who don’t know cars. Sorry.
They call a starter motor not a starter engine..
Funny thing is, you never hear about an electrical engine!
I don’t mind it either way, but any time there is any question, it is safer to refer to the norm.
That being said, anytime I hear morons refer to a sedan as a “post” car, it is like 1000 fingernails on a blackboard! Go figure….
Does this mean that next year’s 100th running of the 500 will be at the Indianapolis Engine Speedway ?
One afternoon after 5, back when this sort of thing was still OK., the mechanics in my shop got into this exact argument as to call that thing under the hood an ENGINE or a MOTOR. Fueled by sufficient amounts of What Made Milwaukee Famous, it got to b quite a spirited (!) discussion which rattled along for some time.
Finally, one of the more senior hands stopped everything and said, ‘You know, did you ever hear of anyone winning the ‘500 at the Indianapolis ENGINE Speedway?’
Case closed !
Or Engine Sport!