Ride/riding shotgun

Origin of: Ride/riding shotgun

Ride/riding shotgun

Originally an American expression that means to travel in the front passenger seat of a motor car next to the driver. It derives from the earlier practice in the American West where a guard armed with a shotgun or similar weapon would ride next to driver of a stagecoach, although there is no known record of this practice as ‘riding shotgun’ per se. The expression dates from the early the early 20th century and therefore has always been used in a metaphorical sense in the context of motor vehicles.