Sun Apr 21 2002 at 22:17:37
The use of "bus" for both a public transit system vehicle and a set of data transmission wires comes from the Latin word "omnibus," the dative plural of "omnes," or all. "Omnibus" was used as a name for transportation in France, starting in the city of Nantes in 1828. Some sources say that the public system was called a "voiture omnibus" (car for everyone) and others that it comes from a shopkeeper who punned on his own last name, Omnes, so that his store near the terminal of the horse-drawn vehicles was called "Omnes Omnibus" (Everything for Everyone) and the name was attached to the transportation.