sb. North Amer. [Corruptions of TRAVAIL sb.3, pronounced in Canada travày, and by half-breeds of the Red River, Assiniboine, etc., travòy, pl. travòys. This has been perverted by writers into an assumed F. travois, pl. travois, and this again englished as travois, -voise, pl. -voises. A form nearer to the original is preserved in the lumbermen’s TRAYOY; see next word.
For the facts of the history we are indebted to Judge Prudhomme of St. Boniface, Winnipeg, through the good offices of Prof. Moyse of Montreal, and Prof. Rivard of Quebec.]
The primitive North American Indian means of transport, = TRAVAIL3. Also attrib.
1885. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 31 Jan., 6/8. The pony … dragging that primitive Indian carriage, the travoise.
1892. J. Ralph, in Harper’s Mag., March, 508/2. On the plains they will have horses dragging travoises, dogs with travoises.
1896. G. B. Grinnell, Story of Indian, ix. 156. Three vehicles were known to the primitive Indian—the travois in the south and the sledge in the north for land travel, and the canoe wherever there were water ways.
1899. Daily News, 12 Jan., 6/1. Groups of silent men with bows and quivers at their backs, of women riding or leading patient pack ponies that dragged their travois.
attrib. 1894. Outing (U.S.), XXIV. 448/2. An old travois pole which some squaw had discarded.
