the.com/cab

means A taxi or the enclosed driver's compartment of a vehicle — the part you hail, or the part you sit up front in.

from Short for 'cabriolet,' a light, two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage with a folding top, from French cabriolet, literally 'little goat-leap' (from cabriole, a caper or leap) — so named for the way the springy carriage bounced along the road. The French word rode into English in the early 1800s, got clipped down to 'cab' by Londoners who wanted to hail one without saying four syllables, and the shortened form outlived the carriage itself, hopping from horse-drawn hansoms to motor taxis to the driver's cab of a truck or train.