Am British, can confirm: the bonnet is the door you open to access the engine bay. The space for luggage is called the boot, and the door you open to access it is called the boot lid.
Because bonnet means “any of various hoods, covers, or protective devices”.
The etymology of which:
bonnet(n.)
early 15c., “kind of cap or bonnet worn by men and women,” from Old French bonet, short for chapel de bonet, a cap made from bonet “kind of cloth used as a headdress” (12c., Modern French bonnet), from Medieval Latin bonitum, bonetum “material for hats,” which is perhaps a shortening of Late Latin abonnis “a kind of cap” (7c.), which is perhaps from a Germanic source. (If that is correct, a chapel de bonet would be etymologically a “cap made of cap”).
So bonnet as a cover for the forward part of a vehicle originated with bonnet as a cover for one’s head.
I use the british-ism, because “bonnet” sounds far less stupid than “frunk”
the bonnet is the hood, though, right? the british term, using the same rule as frunk, should be “froot”.
Am British, can confirm: the bonnet is the door you open to access the engine bay. The space for luggage is called the boot, and the door you open to access it is called the boot lid.
But then it share the word with the hat you wear.
And someone eventually will call it a fonnet.
Because bonnet means “any of various hoods, covers, or protective devices”.
The etymology of which:
So bonnet as a cover for the forward part of a vehicle originated with bonnet as a cover for one’s head.
More people wear hoodies than bonnets though