Forms: α. 6–8 canoa, 7 cannoa; β. 6–8 canow(e, 7 cannow(e, canou(e, 7–8 canoo; γ. 7– caano, cano, 7–8 cannoo, 8- canoe. [In 16th c. canoa, a. Sp. canoa, a. Haytian canoa, the native name found in use by Columbus. Canoa continued in Eng. use into the 18th c., but before 1600 there appeared a parallel form canow, used with varieties of spelling into the 18th c., which was apparently an Eng. modification of canoa; in the course of the 17th c. appeared the forms caano, cano, canno, canoo, cannoe, and canoe, of which cano is also the Du., and canoe an earlier Fr. form (in Cauxois’ transl. of Acosta 1600).
(The mod. F. canot is considered by Diez and Scheler a dim. of OF. cane ship, boat (prob. of Teut. origin: cf. LG. kane, Du. kaan, Ger. kahn, also L. canna small vessel, gondola); but it is perh. the word canoe spelt according to a mistaken etymology. It is not however the equivalent of canoe in English, but means simply ‘little boat.’)]
1. A kind of boat in use among uncivilized nations: a. Originally applied to those of the West Indian aborigines, which were hollowed out of a single tree-trunk, and thence to those of other savages, or of pre-historic men, of this construction. b. Extended to those of other races and other construction, and used generally for any rude craft in which uncivilized people go upon the water; most savages use paddles instead of oars, whence ‘canoe’ is sometimes understood to be any vessel propelled by paddles (cf. sense 2).
α. 1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 45. The Indian language. Canoa, a boate or barke. Ibid., I. i. (Arb.), 66. Theyr lighters or small boates (whiche they call Canoas) … Theyr boates are made only of one tree, made holow with a certain sharpe stone … And are very longe and narowe. Many affirme that they haue sene some of them with fortie ores.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Invent. Shipping, 5. The Boate of one tree called the Canoa.
1622. R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea (1847), 90. With cannoas, which they have in this coast so great, that they carry seventie and eightie men in one of them.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 29. Canoa’s … are nothing but the Tree it self made hollow Boatwise.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., II. xxxviii. 71. The People come thronging on Board in their Canoaes.
β. c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon (1630), 40. Persia [shall] downe her Volga by Canows, Send downe the secrets of her spicerie.
1613. W. Browne, Brit. Past., I. ii. In a boate like the cannowes of Inde.
1661. Hickeringill, Jamaica, 48. In Boats and Canoues.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour, I. 78. An Indian canow brought from the straights of Davis.
γ. 1622–62. Heylin, Cosmogr., IV. (1682), 143. Making Caanos or Boats.
1637. Heywood, Royal Ship, 9. Such the Indian Canooes.
1665. G. Havers, P. della Valle’s Trav. E. India, 343. Much of their Fruits the Ilanders brought unto us in their little Canoos (which are long narrow boats, but like troughs out of firm trees).
1685. Phil. Trans., XV. 980. Rowed up the River Mississippi, in a Canot.
1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, 167. To work in any Cannoe or Wherry.
1760. T. Hutchinson, Hist. Col. Mass., v. (1765), 467. They had two sorts of canoos.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1783), I. 115. Canoes … rudely formed out of the trunk of a single tree.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, II. 29. Our birch canoe dipping, with every motion of the paddle.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, I. 78. [He] descended the Platte from this fork, in skin canoes.
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, xiii. (1869), 429. Each canoe being formed from a single trunk, probably hollowed by fire.
2. In civilized use: A small light sort of boat or skiff propelled by paddling.
The ordinary canoe is made of thin board, galvanized iron, caoutchouc, paper, etc., and like the kayak of the Esquimaux is covered in, except the small space occupied by the canoeist; it is propelled by a paddle having a blade at each end; but so-called ‘Indian’ or ‘Canadian canoes,’ which are open, and hold several persons, are also in use as pleasure-boats, and are propelled by a single-bladed paddle.
1799. Caldron or Follies of Cambridge, 9. Some mount the broad-built sloop, while others woo The well-oar’d funney or the slim canoo.
1807. Southey, Espriella’s Lett., II. 63. Many of the smaller boats [on the Isis] had only a single person in each; and in some of these he sat face-forward, leaning back as in a chair, and plying with both hands a double-bladed oar in alternate strokes. One of these canoes is, I was assured, so exceedingly light that a man can carry it.
1818. Visit to Oxford, 50. A young man who was drowned just below Folly Bridge by the over-setting of a dangerous kind of boat called a canoe, much used for pleasure till forbidden by the Governor of the university.
1865. J. Macgregor (title), A thousand miles in the Rob Roy Canoe.
Pop. Song. ‘Paddle your own canoe.’
3. attrib. and Comb., as canoe burial, travelling; canoe-man; canoe-like, -shaped (shape) adjs.; also canoe birch, a name for Betula papyracea; canoe-song, a song sung by a canoeist while afloat; canoe wood, the wood of the Tulip tree.
1835. Penny Cycl., IV. 349/2. Betula papyracea, the paper or *canoe birch.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., xii. 352. With this belief the *canoe-burial of the North West and of Patagonia hangs together.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 359. A number of long, narrow, *canoe-like boats, of light draft.
1834. M. Scott, Cruise Midge (1859), 360. Quoth Hanse to the black *canoe man.
1885. F. Pollock, in Macm. Mag., Feb., 261/2. An expert canoeman will almost turn it round with one twist of the paddle.
1882. W. Boyd, Aquatics in Canada. One of the most popular French *canoe-songs.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXV. 341/2. Tulip-tree … in America, where it is a native, it is also known by the names White wood, *Canoe wood, Saddle-tree, [etc.].
