Όπως λέει στο αγγλικό (!) wiktionary:
From λεώς (leṓs, “people”), an archaic Attic variant of λαός (laós, “people”), and φορείο (foreío, “carriage”) from the verb φέρω (phérō, “carry”). First coined in 1863 in order to translate the French bus or omnibus. The choice of the obsolete variant λεώς...