ベビーカー

Shogakukan's 1988 Kokugo Dai Jiten and Sanseido's 2006 Daijirin list ベビーカー as wasei eigo made from English baby plus car. The older native word is 乳母車, ubaguruma, a compound of nursemaid and vehicle. The Japanese compound did not come from the standard English term baby carriage, although Merriam-Webster records baby carriage from 1825 and the meanings now overlap. In postwar child-care retail and city transport, ベビーカー became the everyday product name for a small wheeled vehicle pushed by an adult. It sits beside バギー, 乳母車, and product labels such as A型ベビーカー and B型ベビーカー, which Japanese makers use for age and reclining differences. The meaning changed because car in Japanese loan compounds often means a wheeled vehicle, while English baby car is not the normal name for this nursery item. Modern Japanese uses ベビーカー in stations, shopping malls, parks, and parenting guides. In American English the usual word is stroller, while British English uses pushchair or pram depending on the shape and age of the child; Cambridge marks pushchair as UK and stroller as US. Baby carriage is also possible in American English, but baby car may suggest a toy or child-size car. Example: 電車ではベビーカーをたたんだ.