Obs. exc. Hist. Forms: 5 whirlecole, whirlecote, wherlecote, 6 wherli-, whirlicote, 8–9 whirlicot. [Form doubtful; app. orig. whirlecole, f. WHIRL v. + an unidentified element; recorded by Stow in the form whirlicote, whence in later use.] A coach, carriage.
c. 1381. Anominalle Cron. (MS. Stowe 1047), lf. 68 b. Le roy mesmes vient al mile ende et ouecque luy sa meir en vn whirlecole.
c. 1450. Brut, II. 386. Þe Lorde Powys meyne brouȝt hym out of Walis to London yn a whirlecole [sic MSS. Camb. and Reg.; MS. B. Mus. Add. whirlecote; ed. Caxton (1480) wherlecote].
1598. Stow, Surv., 65. Of old time coatches were not knowne in this Island, but chariots, or Whirlicotes…: I reade that Rychard the second being threatened by the rebelles of Kent, rode from the Tower of London to the Myles end, and with him his mother in a Wherlicote.
a. 1800. S. Pegge, Curialia Misc. (1818), 270. The first Wheel-Carriages of the Coach kind were in use with us in the Reign of King Richard II., and were called Whirlicotes.
1861. Our Engl. Home, 75. The wheels of my lady’s whirlicot or the franklin’s plough were repaired in the kitchen.
1888. Freeman, in Stephens, Life & Lett. (1895), II. x. 385. I can’t do much walking, but I go about in a whirlicot. Is not that the oldest name for a coach or landau?
