etymology raze in 1859 the new york and harlem railway took some middle dutch and low german tacked on some french to give it muscle and gave a name to all those cabin cars 140629 ... e_o_i Recursively. I was about twelve, and Grandpa corrected my word to entomology, "and that means the study of bugs." And so I learned that people who know more than me don't know everything I do. 140629 ... e_o_i But that doesn't answer your riddle. What is it? I usually just call train sections train cars, and now I'm curious. 140630 ... e_o_i I've found an interesting one from the online MacMillan dictionary: "bogie (noun): one of the separate spaces into which a railway carriage is divided" It sounds like boogie or buggy or boogeyman. 140630 ... raze ha! it was "caboose". i like bogie too, though. 140630 ... e_o_i Caboose, yes! It's one of those words I learned when I was about four, via Thomas the Tank Engine or something, and then never thought of much afterwards. It's like how kids learn all these names of animals from picture books and science books, and then forget the rarer ones. 140630 what's it to you? who go blather from