Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Indigenous languages ·1550s
Canoe
from canoa (Taino, via Spanish)
- Meaning
- A single-hulled boat of the Caribbean Taino people.
- Source word
- canoa (Taino, via Spanish)
- Route into English
- Columbus's crew recorded the word in 1492 — one of the first Caribbean loanwords to enter European languages. English picked it up from Spanish by the 1550s.
- Arrived
- 1550s
From Indigenous languages
A loose group: Nahuatl, Taino, Algonquian, Guugu Yimithirr, and others. Colonial contact produced many loans; the speakers were often systematically dispossessed of the land the loanwords described.
English borrows.
Browse the full loanword atlas or explore another source language.