CAB. A colloquial abbreviation of the French cabriolet, originally a passenger-vehicle drawn by two or four horses. It was introduced into London from Paris in 182o. London not only turned "cabriolet" into "cab" (a word which became officially enshrined in an act of Parliament, the London Cab act of 1896) but further invented for it the terms "four-wheeler" and "growler." The fashionable horse-cab, however, was the "hansom," a one horsed form, with two big wheels, of very uncertain equilibrium and dangerous character, in which the driver was perched in a dicky placed high up at the back of the vehicle and took his instructions through a small trap-door in the roof. It was difficult to enter a hansom without soiling one's clothes. As originally invented by J. A. Hansom in 1834, however, it was a compara tively safe vehicle, with the driver placed at the side. Horse-cabs quickly became obsolete in great cities with the appearance of the taxicab, a licensed motor vehicle fitted with a taximeter. Cabs plying publicly for hire are in all countries subject to local licens ing laws and official fare determinations which are constantly under review. (See TAXIMETER.)