Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A large four-wheeled Russian vehicle, with a boat-shaped body fixed to two parallel longitudinal wooden bars, in place of springs, and a leather top or hood. It is commonly without seats, and is drawn by three horses.
Wiktionary
- n. A low horse-drawn carriage without springs used in Russia, capable of having its wheels replaced with runners during the winter.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A low four-wheeled carriage used in Russia. The carriage box rests on two long, springy poles which run from the fore to the hind axletree. When snow falls, the wheels are taken off, and the body is mounted on a sledge.
Etymologies
- From Russian тарантас. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The vehicle is a kind of tarantass, but not such as I have just described.”
“Know that the "tarantass" is a sort of berline hung on five pieces of rather elastic wood between wheels placed rather wide apart and of moderate height; that this carriage is driven by a "yemtchik," on the front seat, who has three horses, to whom is added a postilion, the”
“It was a fortunate thing, under the circumstances, for the tarantass could not have carried both baggage and travelers.”
“And the mujik related to Michael Strogoff the different incidents of the struggle which he had witnessed — the attack upon the ferry by the Tartar boats, the pillage of the tarantass, and the massacre of the boatmen.”
“The iemschik, on coming up with his team, threw an inquisitive glance at the passengers of the tarantass.”
“The forced stoppages were anything but agreeable to Michael; so he hastened the departure at each relay, roused the innkeepers, urged on the iemschiks, and expedited the harnessing of the tarantass.”
“As soon as the ferryboat landed the tarantass on the right bank of the Ichim, the journey across the steppe was resumed with all speed.”
“Some of these platforms extended over three hundred feet, and travelers by tarantass, when crossing them have experienced a nausea like sea-sickness.”
“Michael saw the tarantass struck, his companion crushed; he saw there was no time to drag her from the vehicle.”
“This was neither a tarantass nor a telga, but a post-berlin, which looked as if it had made a long journey.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tarantass’.
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A-R-A Words
It's an odd-looking pattern in English. Please add words if it makes you happy. :) K-POW! Wow @gulyasrobi!
scarab, Arawak, Sahara, Arab, pharaoh, caravan, carat, parachute, arachnid, Saran Wrap, Sarah, tarantella and 492 more...
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Realia from Everywhere
Culturally defined terms and expressions from the four corners of the world
fjord, mistral steppe, tornado, tsunami, polder, kiwi, koala, sequoia, Abominable Snowman, paprika, spaghetti, empanada and 299 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1161 more...
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Monovocalics
Words that have only one of the vowels. On this list I include only words with at least three vowels. When I first started the list, if a word had several forms, I generally listed only the one wit...
syzygy, mirific, cumulus, homolog, monocot, bedewed, jezebel, referee, bikini, minikin, locomotor, terebenthene and 2359 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, T
torquate, thalassocracy, toothsome, travois, tempestuous, tone, tincture, tripwire, tether, trill, tenacious, travesty and 355 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
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Clearinghouse
For stuff to simply reside.
calcar, pinion, espadrille, antipodes, peregrine, cormorant, tanager, vireo, farrago, undervest, passerine, oscine and 881 more...
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Summer 12
accoast, agog, alarums, alembic, anapest, animadvert, anoraked, apostasy, aquarelle, argentated, aubergine, auscultation and 197 more...
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Just Carriages
A list of types or styles of horse-drawn carriages. Other Wordniks have made similar and more complete lists. Good for them. I prefer my own list, where you will find numerous terms not listed else...
glass coach, bachelor brougham, gharry, shigram, park coach, park drag, pony park drag, Concord coach, dress landau, Hansom cab, Victoria, body break and 57 more...
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Found reading
telga, tarantass, jalousie, argillaceous, sardanapalus, losel, circumambient, orbicular, mufti, statim, spizzerinctum, soupçon and 46 more...
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The Barouche List: Need a Ride?
Bilby says I should have one. Even though most of these are on my other lists (the ones that weren't, I didn't really want to list).
barouche, buggy, carriage, cabriolet, randem, berlin, victoria, surrey, herdic, hansom, rockaway, cariole and 74 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tarantass.
knitandpurl "Mikhail left for Siberia that night in a tarantass (a springless carriage) and covered the distance from Moscow to Irkutsk in fifteen days."
Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier, p 278 Feb 18, 2011
milosrdenstvi But to what sort of a vehicle should he harness his horses? To a telga or to a tarantass? The telga is nothing but an open four-wheeled cart, made entirely of wood, the pieces fastened together by means of strong rope. Nothing could be more primitive, nothing could be less comfortable; but, on the other hand, should any accident happen on the way, nothing could be more easily repaired. There is no want of firs on the Russian frontier, and axle-trees grow naturally in forests. The post extraordinary, known by the name of "perck-ladnoi," is carried by the telga, as any road is good enough for it. It must be confessed that sometimes the ropes which fasten the concern together break, and whilst the hinder part remains stuck in some bog, the fore-part arrives at the post-house on two wheels; but this result is considered quite satisfactory.
Michael Strogoff would have been obliged to employ a telga, if he had not been lucky enough to discover a tarantass. It is to be hoped that the invention of Russian coach-builders will devise some improvement in this last-named vehicle. Springs are wanting in it as well as in the telga; in the absence of iron, wood is not spared; but its four wheels, with eight or nine feet between them, assure a certain equilibrium over the jolting rough roads. A splash-board protects the travelers from the mud, and a strong leathern hood, which may be pulled quite over the occupiers, shelters them from the great heat and violent storms of the summer. The tarantass is as solid and as easy to repair as the telga, and is, moreover, less addicted to leaving its hinder part in the middle of the road.
-- Jules Verne, Michael Strogoff Oct 8, 2009
mollusque A low, four-wheeled, springless Russian travelling carriage. Dec 16, 2007