Velocipede

VELOCIPEDE

Velocipede is the French word for bicycle—vélocipède. It is the name of one of the first bicycles invented, an ancestor of the modern bicycle.

The bicycle invented by the Michaux brothers in 1862 was called the vélocipède. However, the invention by the German Karl Von Drais in 1817, the Draisienne, is widely accepted as the first bicycle.

The word "velocipede" was used in its Turkish form "velespit" much more widely than the word "bisiklet" (bicycle) until quite recently—throughout the 20th century. The poet Nâzım Hikmet's choice to use the word "velosipet" in his poem "Swiss Mountains" is a fine example of this.

These mountains, what mountains they are,
they resemble our mountains,
their knife-like passes, their patchy snows
these mountains, what mountains they are
they resemble our mountains
the people too… They have hands and feet, eyes and brows
but with velocipedes
Ours are without velocipedes,
and with lice