# Talk:Electriquette

You just answered a long-standing question I've had about the unusual, historical interest in electric cars that people in San Diego have had for a century.  I first encountered it in the 1980s, but never traced it to the 1915 Panama–California Exposition in Balboa Park.  Great work on this. Viriditas (talk) 00:04, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

Thanks Viriditas if you are near San Diego it would be great to have pics of the new ones. I enjoyed researching it. Bruxton (talk) 01:18, 10 September 2024 (UTC)
I haven't been to San Diego in a very long time.  But when I lived there in the 1980s, there was this unusual, regional fascination with electric cars that I never was able to understand.  Now I do, thanks to you. Viriditas (talk) 22:11, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

Pardon me if I missed it but I didn't see anything about where the name came from. I get the "Electri" part but where did "quette" come from? Is it a portmanteau? Thanks, †dismas†|(talk) 16:52, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

@Dismas: I don't think anyone knows the answer to your question.  A retired linguist by the name of Debbie Cameron ("debuk") looked into part of the question, in other words, why was the suffix "–ette" added to words contemporaneous with the invention of the electric, movable chair that became known as the "Electriquette"? ("Ette-ymology", 2015) Cameron notes the popularity of the word suffragette, which appeared in 1906, but there were already existing uses of "–ette" in play, which were used to give an object diminutive status ("these –ette words sometimes implied that a thing was small in a metaphorical as well as a literal sense—slight, trivial, of lesser value").  It could also be a shortened form of coquette (flirt), and if it is, that would make some sense. Viriditas (talk) 22:10, 10 September 2024 (UTC)