This car has heart

Since many Americans are positively smitten with their cars, it seems fitting that one of Honda’s vehicles is called the “Accord.”

“Accord” stems from two Latin word parts “ad,” meaning to, and “cord,” meaning heart. Like many prefixes, “ad” morphed into “ac” to make the word easier to pronounce and spell.

The word means to be in harmony or agreement. If someone does something of his or her own accord, it means that person acts willingly or perhaps even wholeheartedly.

Wikipedia cites a press release issued by Honda in 1997 that stated the car company chose the name to underscore "Honda's desire for accord and harmony between people, society and the automobile."

Even though the grammar in that quote is not quite right (“between” should be “among”), it’d be refreshing to think that Honda’s corporate heart was really in the right place.

Illustration special to the Sentinel