A hackney or hackney carriage is a carriage or car for hire. A hackney of a more expensive or high class was called a remise.

What does the term Hackney mean?

1a : a horse suitable for ordinary riding or driving. b : a trotting horse used chiefly for driving. c often capitalized : any of an English breed of rather compact usually chestnut, bay, or brown high-stepping horses.

Why are taxis called hackney carriages?

Although the origins of the term 'Hackney coach' is unclear, historians suggest that it derives from the French word hacquenée, which roughly translates as a horse suitable for hire. The first Hackney coaches - large and luxuriously trimmed horse-drawn carriages - appeared during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1.