773: jitney (and jeepney) Jan 19, 2017

Jitneys are buses or other automobiles that don't coast very much to ride, and while now no one who knows the word would mistake it for meaning anything else, 'jitney' did not start out referring to any vehicle at all. In the early 20th century, 'jitney' was slang for a nickel, and from here, the term was applied to cheap transportation. At that time, this could denote any inexpensive bus, but today people almost always mean smaller-sized buses or sometimes shuttles. Later on, the word 'jeepney' was coined as a portmanteau of 'jeep' and 'jitney' meaning 'a jeep that was made into a jitney', which is quite common in Southeast Asia.