Riding shotgun
"Riding shotgun" was a phrase used to describe the bodyguard who rides alongside a stagecoach driver, typically armed with a break-action shotgun, called a coach gun, to ward off bandits or hostile Native Americans. In modern use, it refers to the practice of sitting alongside the driver in a moving vehicle. The coining of this phrase dates to 1905 at the latest.
The driver is holding the whip with the shotgun messenger on his left. | |
| Origin/etymology | A bodyguard riding alongside a stagecoach driver (derived from "shotgun messenger") |
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| Meaning | |
| Coined by | Alfred Henry Lewis (1905) |
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