brougham

English

Etymology

Named from Henry Peter, Lord Brougham (1778–1868), who either invented or popularized the vehicle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɹuːəm/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːəm

Noun

brougham (plural broughams)

1. A four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage, designed in 1839. It had an open seat for the driver in front of the closed cabin for two or four passengers.
   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, A Scandal In Bohemia, Norton, published 2005, page 12:

     “Yes,” he continued, glancing out of the window. “A nice little brougham and a pair of beauties.”

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “His Own People”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 6:

     It was flood-tide along Fifth Avenue; motor, brougham, and victoria swept by on the glittering current; pretty women glanced out from limousine and tonneau; young men of his own type, silk-hatted, frock-coated, the crooks of their walking sticks tucked up under their left arms, passed on the Park side.

   • 1951 November, “By Train in a Brougham”, in Railway Magazine, page 778:

     Mr. H. R. Pope writes that in 1879 his father bought a new brougham in London, and the vehicle was taken to Victoria Station for conveyance to Brighton by passenger train. It so happened that the carriage truck was attached to the train by which Mr. Pope and his father were returning to Sussex, and the stationmaster allowed them to make the journey in the brougham.

2. An automobile, a sedan without a roof over the driver's seat.

Derived terms

• Whitechapel brougham