The English Oracle

How to obtain "diligence" from crossword clue "horse-drawn vehicle industry"

--------------------------------------------------
Rise to the top 3% as a developer or hire one of them at Toptal: https://topt.al/25cXVn
--------------------------------------------------

Music by Eric Matyas
https://www.soundimage.org
Track title: Magical Minnie Puzzles

--

Chapters
00:00 How To Obtain &Quot;Diligence&Quot; From Crossword Clue &Quot;Horse-Drawn Vehicle Industry&Quot;
00:17 Accepted Answer Score 8
00:47 Answer 2 Score 2
01:15 Thank you

--

Full question
https://english.stackexchange.com/questi...

--

Content licensed under CC BY-SA
https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/lice...

--

Tags
#meaningincontext

#avk47



ACCEPTED ANSWER

Score 8


Wiktionary says:

diligence (plural diligences)

  1. conscientiousness or determination or perseverance when doing something
  2. (religion) One of the seven contrary virtues, opposite the vice of sloth.
  3. A public stage-coach. (19th century, now used only in reference to France or other European countries including Great Britain.)

industry (in the sense of "busily working") would match definition 1, and definition 3 is a horse-drawn vehicle, if an obscure one. I had no idea!




ANSWER 2

Score 2


Here's the etymology of the third meaning given at the Wiktionary.

From the secondary French sense comes the old usage of diligence for "public stage coach" (1742; dilly for short), from a French shortening of carrosse de diligence.

O.Fr. diligence means "attention, care; haste, speed," so carrosse de diligence means "speedy coach."

The Encylopaedia Britannica expands on how the diligence differs from the american stagecoach.