[ad. F. vélocipède, f. L. vēlōci-, vēlox swift + ped-, pēs foot.]
1. = DANDY-HORSE, HOBBY sb.1 4, HOBBY-HORSE 5. Obs. exc. Hist.
1819. Monthly Mag., March, 156. A machine called the Velocipede, or Swift Walker. Invented by Baron Drais and patented in England by Denis Johnson, coachmaker, of Long Acre, in 1818.
1819. Keats, Lett. (1895), 300. The nothing of the day is a machine called the velocipede. It is a wheel carriage to ride cock-horse upon, sitting astride and pushing it along with the toes, a rudder-wheel in hand.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 209. He never proceeded with his machine at a greater rate than five miles an hour, and yet named it Velocipede.
1839. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., II. 242/1. The horse will take longer steps, and longer springs or leaps,… in the same way as a man upon a velocipede.
1850. in Ogilvie.
† b. A kind of roller-skate. Obs.
1825. Mech. Mag., V. 79. A Velocipede intended to be fixed on one foot;… the velocipedestrian pushes himself away with the other.
2. A travelling-machine having wheels turned by the pressure of the feet upon pedals; esp. an early form of the bicycle or tricycle, a ‘bone-shaker.’ Now rare. (Quot. 1853 may belong to sense 1.)
1849–50. Weale, Dict. Terms, s.v.
1851. Catal. Grt. Exhib., V. No. 991. Velocipede, consisting of three wheels.
1853. R. S. Surtees, Soapey Sp. Tour (1893), 369. He is riding a miserable rat of a badly-clipped mouse-coloured pony, that looks like a velocipede under him.
1868. G. Duff, Pol. Surv., 126. The unprecedented reaction is moving on with the swiftness of a velocipede.
1886. Cyclist Touring Club Gaz., IV. 146. Bicycles, tricycles, and other velocipedes. Ibid., 149. Every cyclist using a velocipede.
3. transf. a. Applied to persons.
1822. New Monthly Mag., VI. 344. In the Ballet we have nothing new to report. M. Paul, a true velocipede, continues to electrify the astonished spectators.
1891. Meredith, One of our Conq., xvi. He’s a worthy little velocipede, as Fenellan calls him.
b. A swift-moving vehicle.
1838. Blackw. Mag., XLIII. 340. Stage-coaches … were not the velocipedes that they now are.
1842. R. Ford, in Smiles, Publisher & Friends (1891), II. 491. I read Borrow with great delight all the way down per rail, and it shortened the rapid flight of that velocipede.
4. attrib. and Comb., as velocipede carriage, -crank, traffic, velocity, -wise adv.
1819. Gentl. Mag., LXXXIX. I. 423. With our heavy population, Velocipede carriages may hereafter be substituted … worked by two or more men.
1839. Blackw. Mag., XLVI. 39. The rush of waiters hurrying with velocipede velocity in opposite directions.
1869. H. Bushnell, Wom. S., viii. 178. He sings velocipede-wise, turning the crank himself.
1870. Belgravia, Feb., 444. A paddle-wheel … furnished with velocipede-cranks.
Hence Velocipedean, Velocipeder, = VELOCIPEDIST. Velocipedestrian a., = VELOCIPEDIC a.; sb. one who uses a velocipede (see sense 1 b above); also Velocipedestrianism, the practice of using the velocipede. Velocipedian, = VELOCIPEDIST. Velocipedic a., of or pertaining to velocipedes. Velocipeding vbl. sb., the action or practice of using a velocipede. Velocipedist [ad. F. vélocipédiste], one who rides a velocipede.
1842. Howitt, Vis. Remark. Places, Ser. II. 431. He was a very adroit *Velocipedean.
1869. Daily News, 9 March. As the bicycles gained the open country the velocipedeans began to work in earnest.
1819. Sporting Mag., IV. 39. A *Velocipeder presented himself at a turnpike, and demanded, ‘What’s to pay?’
1869. Sci. Amer., 13 Feb., 101. The votaries of *Velocipedestrian Science. Ibid., 9 Jan., 25. *Velocipedestrianism, a word coined for the times, is easier to learn than skating.
1869. Echo, 3 Dec. The invention of the crank-axled machine gave a great impulse to velocipedestrianism.
1819. Liverpool Mercury, 2 July, 1/4. Still less are we inclined to negative these *velocipedian attempts, being confident that if no advantage can be derived from them in travelling, they at least afford most delightful and salutary exercise.
1869. Velocipede (N.Y.), April, 20. A velocipedian, after a fair amount of experience, finds himself … at home astride his two-wheeler.
1869. Evening Bulletin (Leavenworth, KS), 17 Feb., 1/3. An inventive genius has constructed a new kind of *velocipedic machine to which he has given the name of Velo-Cycle.
1892. Times, 21 April, 5/5. Dr. Mussy, spokesman of the Velocipedic Union, dwelt on the advantages of cycling to school-boys, tourists, and soldiers.
1821. Liverpool Mercury, 25 May, 6/4. All these performances ought no more to be styled walking, than *velocipeding ought to be called riding.
1869. Velocipede (N.Y.) April, 21. Velocipeding is a hopeful sign of progress.
1886. W. J. Tucker, E. Europe, 109. Just like that velocipeding and Danube-boating at Pesth!
1820. Williams, Hist. Acc. Invent., II. 486. The rest afforded to the *velocipedist between his steps which set the machine in motion, enables him to proceed much quicker.
1868. Lond. Soc., Nov., 408. The velocipedists have stolen a march on the coming flying man.
1885. Pall Mall G., 28 April, 10/2. The ‘St. Petersburg Society of Amateur Velocipedists.’
