Occas. buss. A familiar shortening of OMNIBUS. Hence bus-driver, -man, etc.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Weal & Woe, i. 14. If the station offers me a place in a buss.
1837. Fraser’s Mag., XVI. 680. Another Buss came up.
a. 1845. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. III. (1858), 445. There was no taking refuge too then, as with us, On a slip-sloppy day, in a cab or a ’bus.
1851. Belgravia, 73. Whilst thundering down Hundreds of busses scour the trembling town.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, III. 348. As the busmen call them.
1887. Punch, 12 March, 130/2. She is left without a penny to pay for tram or bus.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 25 July, 6/1. Tale of the ’bus men’s woes … the private ’buses.
Hence Bus v. in colloq. phr. to bus it: to go by bus.
1838. New Monthly Mag., LIII. 93. A little too bad … that you and I … should be compelled to ’buss it.
1860. Chamb. Jrnl., XIV. 116. We may ‘cab’ it … we may ’bus it; or we may go by boat.
