jitney

Origin: 1886, originally for a five-cent US coin (a nickel); use for taxis and buses due to these services originally charging five cents as fare, popularized circa 1915. The etymology is ; it is believed to originate from , from , though this is disputed. Evidence for the Louisiana Creole French origin includes the geographic distribution (Southeastern US, especially Black/African-American), and early spelling as gitney, which is common French spelling for the pronunciation. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).