Sedan (automobile)

A sedan (American English) or saloon (British English) is a passenger car in a three-box configuration with separate compartments for an engine, passengers, and cargo. Variations of the sedan style include the close-coupled sedan, club sedan, convertible sedan, fastback sedan, hardtop sedan, notchback sedan, and sedanet.

The sedan name derives from the 17th-century litter known as a "sedan chair", a one-person enclosed box with windows carried by porters. The first recorded use of the term sedan to describe an automobile body style occurred in 1912.

A sedan (/sɪˈdæn/) is a car with a closed body (i.e., a fixed metal roof) with the engine, passengers, and cargo in separate compartments. This broad definition does not differentiate sedans from various other car body styles. In practice, the typical characteristics of sedans include the following:

It is sometimes suggested that sedans must have four doors (to provide a simple distinction between sedans and two-door coupés); others state that a sedan can have four or two doors. Although the sloping rear roofline defined the coupe, the design element has become common on many body styles with manufacturers increasingly "cross-pollinating" the style so that terms such as sedan and coupé have been loosely interpreted as "'four-door coupes' - an inherent contradiction in terms."

When a manufacturer produces two-door and four-door sedan versions of the same model, the shape and position of the greenhouse on both versions may be identical, with only the B-pillar positioned further back to accommodate the longer doors on the two-door versions.

The term "sedan" as applied to automobiles traces its roots to human-powered transport before its adoption by the automotive industry.

The word "sedan" is believed to derive from the Latin word "sedere" and the Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to sit," likely through various Italian dialects.

This etymological origin points to the sedan chair, a sophisticated form of litter that emerged in the 1630s. A sedan chair is an enclosed box, typically fitted with windows, designed for transporting a single seated person. It is carried by porters, one at the front and one at the rear, using horizontal poles. While sedan chairs were developed in the 17th century, the concept of litters for human transport dates back much further, predating ancient Egypt, India, and China.