Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Indigenous languages ·1820s
Toboggan
from tabagan
- Meaning
- A flat-bottomed sled.
- Source word
- tabagan
- Route into English
- Micmac *topaǧan* (drag made of skin) → Canadian French *tabagane* → English in the 19th century via Canadian winter sports. Now also a word for a stocking cap, especially in the US South.
- Arrived
- 1820s
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.
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