In English a chauffeur is usually a posh professional driver of a car that conveys important passengers.
But the term has railway origins: in French it literally means a person who heats something up, and that was originally the boiler of a steam locomotive via the firebox. In German the direct translation was Heizer, but Heater in English evidently didn't sound so good, as the words Fireman or Stoker were used for a person in this role. For the person who does the driving of a locomotive, the French use mécanicien, otherwise a chauffeur is the general word for a driver.
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