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Maybe they had more reason to call it a supercharger than you think. Supporting evidence-

A turbocharger, or turbo (colloquialism), from the Greek "τύρβη" (mixing/spinning)

Turbochargers were originally known as a turbosuperchargers when all forced induction devices were classified as superchargers

-- Wikipedia

In other words, the turbocharger was actually the origin of the concept of "turbo" meaning boosted speed/power.

I'm still looking for the origin of the "super" part.




"Super" means that the subject is "above" as in superstructure, superscript and superintendent. A supercharger is then a charger that's above (presumably in performance) regular chargers.

"To charge" means "to load [a carriage]", "A charge" means "a [carriage] load" -- so while the metaphor is overloaded, it actually seems to applies better to charging a battery than to forcing air into a combustion engine.


If we go with your interpretation of "above", it actually makes perfect sense- the intake charge is "above" ambient pressure.




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