> It was then applied to the MoT Test, the car inspection for roadworthiness, which then became elided to the form of "the MOT" being universally understood to refer to the test itself, or even the certificate you gain for the vehicle passing the test. From a vast body of civil servants to a piece of paper!

Exactly the same consequence has occured here in Germany with the joint concern with handles automobile testing. The now privatised TÜV AG (Technischer Überwachungs-Verein, Aktien Gesellschaft) tests practically every type of private or industrial piece of machinery, from nuclear reactors to lifts, yet to Joe Bloggs (or rather 'Heinz Müller') 'TÜV' is just what his car has to pass every three years in order to prevent him getting stopped on the Autobahn.