Today's Word "Toboggan"
Published in Vocabulary
toboggan \teh-BAH-gehn\ (noun) - A long, flat-bottomed sled without runners made of slats curled up in front.
"With the economy tobogganing heaven knows where, Jean was convinced that it was better to keep your money in a sock under your mattress."
Today's word may also be used as a verb signifying the use of a toboggan, as to toboggan down a snowy hill. However, if you are in the Southeastern US where snow is a rarity, be careful using today's word. In the US South it more usually refers to the knitted, stretchable hat that you might pull over your head to toboggan. You are a tobogganer if you toboggan. Borrowed by French Canadians from an Algonquian language. It was originally spelled tabaganne (Le Clercq 'Nouvelle Relation de la Gaspesie,' 1691, p. 70). The word was probably borrowed from Micmac (Lower Canada, Nova Scotia) "tobakun," a word related to Abnaki (Quebec and Maine) "udabagan," Montaignais "utapan," Cree "otabanask," and Ojibwe "odaban-ak."
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