pirata
n.— «Also known as bandit taxis, gypsy cabs or piratas—Spanish for “pirates”—they take business away from licensed cabbies, depress bus ridership and pose safety risks for passengers, officials say.» —“Illegal Taxis Keep On Rolling” by Caitlin Liu Los Angeles Times Nov. 22, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Aaron in Los Angeles, California, notes while using public transit in Britain he and other passengers were instructed to alight from the front, meaning “exit the car from the front.” Alight comes from an Old English word alihtan, literally, to...