Kaye Thompson, aged 12, of Livonia, N.Y. for her question;

What is the derivation of the word taxi?

A taxi is listed in the big dictionary under a number of aliases, It is a taximeter cab, a taxameter cab or a taxometer cab. Naturally a cruising cab would escape before you could use one of these long names to hail it. So a short name was necessary. And the most important syllable in taximeter cab was used to speed things up.

This syllable refers to the most important part of the cab ‑ the thing that makes it different from most other automobiles. That is the tax, or price you pay, when the ride is done. On a taxi, this tax, or fare, is decided by a ticking meter ‑ the little busybody called a taximeter.

There are taxiplanes. Like the taxicab they are also in the market far public hire. The word taxi is also izsed as a verb to describe certain actions of all aircraft. A plane taxis along the ground before it takes off and after it lands. Certain planes taxi on the water. This verb probably got its meaning because the aircraft seemed to cruise along like a taxicab ‑ not because the plane uses a taximeter for this operation.