commuter

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Individual who frequently travels between two places. A person who lives in a residential suburb and works each day in the city is a commuter.

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n

Definition: traveler
Antonyms: telecommuter

Origin: 1865

Americans did not invent the suburbs, but they did create the commuter--someone who shuttles from a home in the suburbs to a job in the city and back again every day. Residing at a considerable distance from work was made possible by the invention of the railroad, and the name for someone who did so was made possible by the invention in the 1840s of a ticket good for multiple rides, the commutation ticket. Here commutation means "an exchange of one thing for another," especially if the new thing is a consolidation or reduction of the old. That is what the commutation ticket did: it exchanged individual tickets for a collective one at a lower price. The holder of such a ticket, being involved in the commutation, was thus called a commuter. Here is an 1865 exerpt from the Atlantic Monthly about railroads: "Two or three may be styled commuters' roads, running chiefly for the accommodation of city business-men with suburban residences."

In that statement we already see the modern connection of commuter with a lifestyle rather than a kind of ticket. Soon it no longer mattered whether the person held a commutation ticket, only where the person lived and worked. A commuter could ride a trolley, subway, cable car, or ferry as well as a train. In the twentieth century the commuter turned to the bus and automobile. While public transportation still carries commuters, the modern image of the commuter has become the lone driver on the freeway (1930), expressway (1944) or interstate (1968), enduring gapers' blocks and Gridlock (1980), talking on a cell phone (1984) to a drive-time talk radio (1985) host.

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IN BRIEF: A person who travels a distance to work.

Sam was tired of being a commuter so he looked for a job near his home.

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An air carrier operator, operating under relevant rules, that carries passengers on at least five round trips per week on at least one route between two or more points according to its published flight schedules. The schedules must specify the times, day of the week, and locations of these flights. The aircraft that a commuter operates has 30 or fewer passenger seats and a payload capability of 7500 lb or less.

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For a list of words related to commuter, see:

• Urban Structures and Phenomena - commuter: person who commutes regularly, esp. to work

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See words rhyming with "commuter."