Other forms: bonnets
The bonnet is the hinged lid at the front of a car, over the engine. You pull the catch inside, lift it, prop it on the metal rod, and check the oil.
Bonnet is British: Americans call the same panel the hood, and what the British call the boot is their trunk. The older meaning is alive too - a bonnet is a soft hat that fastens with ribbons under the chin, worn by babies and by every woman in a Victorian painting, and in Scotland a bonnet is a flat brimless cap for men. What makes a hat a bonnet is the tie under the chin, so a cap and a beret are not bonnets. And if somebody has a bee in their bonnet about the parking scheme, they will bring it up every time you meet.
1nounbonnetThe hinged cover over the engine at the front of a car.~2%
“Steam was coming out from under the bonnet before we reached the junction.”
synonyms: hood
2nounsoftA soft hat that fastens with ribbons under the chin.~70%
“The baby was asleep in a white cotton bonnet.”
3nounflatA flat brimless cap worn by men in Scotland.~28%
“He wore a dark bonnet with a red band round it.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 7 sentences found in the wild and placed 7 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
bonnet is a car part.
Also accepted in games: hood
Bonnet came through Middle English bonet and French from Old French, where it first named the cloth that hats were cut from rather than the hat. Trace it further and it is Frankish *bunni, that which is bound, from Proto-Germanic *bundija, a bundle, on the Proto-Indo-European root *bhendh-, to tie - the family that also holds bind and bundle. The cloth named the hat, and centuries later the hat named a lid on a car.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰendʰ- — to tie
Proto-Germanic
*bundiją — bundle
Frankish
*bunni — that which is bound
Old French
bonet — material from which hats are made
Middle French
bonet
Middle English
bonet
English, today
bonnet
From Middle English bonet, from Middle French bonet (Modern French bonnet), from Old French bonet (“material from which hats are made”), from Frankish bunni (“that which is bound”), from Proto-Germanic bundiją (“bundle”), from Proto-Indo-European bʰendʰ- (“to tie”). Compare also Latin abbonis, obbonis (“ribbon of a headdress”), also of gem origin, from Frankish obbunni, from ob- (“above, over”) + bunni. Cognate with Old High German gibunt (“band, ribbon”), Middle Dutch bont (“bundle, truss”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌱𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌹 (“bond”). More at over, bundle.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA