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Originally Posted by enkeivette
Someone posted a thread on another forum about the difference between the term engine and motor. Got me thinking.
I wrote simply engine = combustion, motor = electric. Eventhough, everyone, including General MOTORS, uses the word motor to describe engines.
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It's a common false assertion based on incomplete knowledge.
Motor from the Latin root movere, to move or impart motion.
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any of various power units that develop energy or impart motion: as a : a small compact engine b : internal combustion engine; especially : a gasoline engine c : a rotating machine that transforms electrical energy into mechanical energy
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Motor Trend
Motor Craft
Best Motoring
Department of Motor Vehicles
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The mistake is the assumption that motor refers exclusively to an electrical motor.
However, what I DID NOT know when we were considering names is that Motorgen was a common vernacular term for Motor Generator. My thought was Motor Generation, as in the technical and mechanized world, apart from previous millennia of human existence.