bicycle
pronunciation
How to pronounce bicycle in British English:
UK [ˈbaɪsɪkl]
How to pronounce bicycle in American English:
US [ˈbaɪsɪkl]
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- Noun:
- a wheeled vehicle that has two wheels and is moved by foot pedals
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- Verb:
- ride a bicycle
Word Origin
- bicycle
- bicycle: [19] The word bicycle, literally ‘twowheeled’ (from Greek kúklos ‘circle, wheel’), was originally coined in French, and first appeared in English in 1868, in the 7 September edition of the Daily News: ‘bysicles and trysicles which we saw in the Champs Élysées and the Bois de Boulogne this summer’. This reflects the fact that it was in the 1860s that the bicycle first assumed the form we know it in today, with pedals and cranks driving the front wheel. (Slightly earlier was the now obsolete velocipede, literally ‘swift foot’, first applied to pedal bicycles and tricycles around 1850.Until the introduction of pneumatic tyres in the 1880s, the new cycles were known as bone-shakers – a term first encountered in 1874.)=> cycle, wheel
- bicycle (n.)
- 1868, coined from bi- "two" + Greek kyklos "circle, wheel" (see cycle (n.)), on the pattern of tricycle; both the word and the vehicle superseding earlier velocipede. The English word probably is not from French, though often said to be (many French sources say the French word is from English). The assumption apparently is because Pierre Lallement, employee of a French carriage works, improved Macmillan's 1839 pedal velocipede in 1865 and took the invention to America. See also pennyfarthing. As a verb, from 1869. That ne plus ultra of snobbishness -- bicyclism. [1876]
Example
- 1. The buzziest mode of transport now is a bicycle .
- 2. They paid for their dream with the proceeds from their bicycle shop .
- 3. Cycling means riding a bicycle .
- 4. Eighteen years ago this summer I rode a bicycle , solo , across the united states and wrote about it .
- 5. A conventional bicycle is remarkably stable when moving .