- I first heard this word when I asked one of my friends how we were going to get to Taco Bell. He responded by saying we were going to rail it. The word seems to be clipped from the longer word “light rail” and then zero derived to make a verb. I can also see an obvious semantic change in the word rail. In Latin the word originally meant straightedge then it was metaphorically extended to the rail of a train because the rail was straight. Now the word rail in “light rail” is being extended to mean the actual train on the rail via metonymy. This word is much more convenient to use than saying “we are going to take the light rail.”
Rail
verb; zero derivation Clipping then zero derivation
to take the light rail train to a certain destination
Etymology : Rail from Latin regula ‘straight stick, bar, rod’
Source : We're going to have to rail our way over there. (conversation, Nov. 21, 2008)
Last modified: 2 December 2008