One of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
A long, narrow canoe made from a single tree trunk, especially in Central America and the Caribbean.
- ‘For the next three weeks the expedition carried their pirogues and canoes up steep slopes, over jagged ridges and around gullies and ravines.’
- ‘We jokingly say that the interior of the Pearl is too wet to walk into, yet too shallow for a pirogue [canoe].’
- ‘They also built European-style luggers and skiffs, and the pirogue, based on Indian dugout canoes.’
- ‘And while elsewhere the Missouri has been dammed and reservoired into submission, here it flows beautifully beneath sandstone bluffs, not so different from the river that the Corps traveled in two pirogues and six dugout canoes.’
- ‘Equipped with some chilled white wine and a few simple baguettes, we rented an inexpensive pirogue (outrigger canoe) and set off into the lagoon.’
Early 17th century: from French, probably from Carib.
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