Picture a taxi cab leaping through heavy traffic like an acrobatic billy goat. In fact, "cab" is derived from the Latin word for goat.
"Cab" is a shortening of the French word "cabriolet." Originally, a "cabriolet" was a two-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse. This light vehicle bounced so much over bumpy roads that the French gave it the Italian word for somersault, "cabriola." "Cabriola," in turn, is derived from the Latin "caper," meaning goat, an animal known for its playful gambols.
Goats frolic in several other English words, including "caper" (a frisky leap or escapade), "capriole" (a playful jump), "capricious," "chevron" and "Capricorn."
"Capricious" was originally derived, not from the goat but from the hedgehog. It comes from the Italian word "capriccio," which means "shiver of fear." The Italians thought a frightened person whose hair was standing on end resembled a spiky-headed hedgehog. So he was called a "capriccio," from "capo" (head) and "riccio" (hedgehog).
But when English adopted "cappricio" as "capricious," its meaning fell under the spell of "caper." So "capricious" came to mean, not fearful, but whimsical. William Shakespeare, that sly, goat-footed Pan of the pen, punned on the connection between "capricious" and "goat" when he wrote in "As You Like It," "as the most capricious Poet honest Ovid was among the Gothes."
As for "chevron," the Romans thought the v-shaped pattern formed by the intersection of two roof rafters resembled a leaping goat. So they called a rafter a "chevron," after the vulgar Latin "capron," goat. In English, "chevron" came to mean a v-shaped insignia.
The goat-shaped constellation and Zodiac sign "Capricorn" literally means "horned goat" in Latin. It's so named because the Greeks believed this constellation was Amaltheia, the goat that nursed the infant Zeus. In fact, one of the moons of the planet Jupiter (the Roman name for Zeus) is called "Amaltheia" in her honor.
And "Tropic of Capricorn"? When the direct rays of the sun reach this astronomical line in the southern hemisphere on Dec. 21, the sun just happens to be frolicking in the constellation Capricornus.