Omnibus - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

OMNIBUS (Lat. "for all"), a large closed public conveyance with seats for passengers inside and out (see Carriage). The name, colloquially shortened to "bus," was, in the form aoiture omnibus, first used for such conveyances in Paris in 1828, and was taken by Shillibeer for the vehicle he ran on the Paddington road in 1829. The word is also applied to a box at the opera which is shared by several subscribers, to a bill or act of parliament dealing with a variety of subjects, and in electrical engineering to the bar to which the terminals of the generators are attached and from which the current is taken off by the wires supplying the various consumers.