What does chauffeur mean?
A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a private motor vehicle for someone else, typically a wealthy household, a business executive, or a guest being formally transported. The word entered English from French at the dawn of motoring, and it retains an air of luxury and service: to have a chauffeur suggests affluence, status, or at least a special occasion, which is why hotels, limousine firms, and weddings still advertise chauffeur-driven cars. English also uses chauffeur as a verb — 'she chauffeured the children to school' — usually with a light, humorous implication that the driver is acting in a servant-like or indulgent capacity. Historically the French word meant 'stoker', the person who fed fuel into an early steam engine's furnace, so the modern sense preserves an unexpected trace of the industrial age. A female chauffeur may be called a chauffeuse, though the term is now uncommon.
A person employed to drive a private motor vehicle for another person.
"The ambassador arrived at the embassy with his chauffeur at the wheel."
To drive someone in a car, especially as if one were their chauffeur.
"My uncle chauffeured us all over Provence during our visit."
Often used humorously or self-deprecatingly about ordinary driving for family or friends.
Standard plural; used both for multiple drivers collectively and generically.
"The agency employs dozens of trained chauffeurs."
Before it ever drove anyone, a chauffeur was literally the man who stoked the fire — the French word means 'stoker', a leftover from the age of steam.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of chauffeur
Chauffeur comes from French chauffeur, meaning 'stoker', derived from the verb chauffer, 'to heat or warm', which traces back through Latin calefacere ('to make warm') to the Latin root calere ('to be hot'). When automobiles first appeared in France, the driver had to tend the engine's boiler or fuel, so the stoker's title transferred to the driver of the new machine. English borrowed the word in the late 19th century as motoring spread. The same Latin root gives English related words such as chafe, the insect name chafer, and, more distantly through Old French, nonchalant.
Related word forms
How chauffeur is actually used
The verb use ('he chauffeured her to the party') often carries a playful or slightly ironic tone when applied to ordinary driving by friends or parents. The noun connotes wealth, service, or formality; 'driver' is the neutral everyday alternative.
Easily confused with chauffeur
A 'chauffer' (with an extra r after 'au') is an obsolete term for something that warms or heats, whereas a 'chauffeur' is a person who drives a car for others.