I aways take a sort of grim pleasure in pointing out when the American language gets something wrong that we get right.
In this case, Americans fill their cars with ‘gas’—short for ‘gasoline’—while we fill ours with ‘petrol’—short for ‘petroleum.’
The word ‘gasoline’ is recorded from 1860.
Here’s the Oxford’s explanation of how the word got started—it was ‘originally a light fuel oil made by the fractional distillation of petroleum, used for heating and lighting.’
Only later was the word applied to motor fuel (the same sort of petroleum distillate that we, correctly, call ‘petrol’).
How the word ‘gasoline’ was formed is a bit unclear.
It seems this early ‘gasoline’ product was also sold under the name of ‘gas oil’ so that may have been the start.
There is also the possibility that it was a variation on a commercial product invented by John Cassell of London which was sold under the name of ‘cazeline’ (you can see the similarity to ‘gasoline’).
Whatever word path led to the word, it was purely accidental and says nothing about the real chemical constitution of motor fuel.
On the other hand. ‘petroleum’ is about a thousand years older than ‘gasoline.’
‘Petroleum’ was a word in Old English and was formed from two classical Latin words—petra meaning ‘rock’ and oleum meaning ‘oil.’
So, it names oil type fluids that are present in some rock formations.
The word we use for motor fuel, ‘petrol’ accurately represents the chemical composition of the fluid in question and also reflects its history.
So— ‘petrol’ is the correct name and ‘gas’ is just wrong! We win again.
Tonight I'll be a panellist on the quiz show on Sky News. The show is called 'Quizzical' and can be seen tonight at 8:30pm (AEST).
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BY THE WAY...
If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
The liveliest part of this website is usually the Q and A page -- be sure to check it out from time to time.
