Etymology: < Spanish canoa, (formerly also, rare) †canua (both a1493) < Taino canoa (see note). Compare (ultimately < Spanish) post-classical Latin canoa (1511 in an earlier version of the passage translated in quot. 1555 at sense 1β. ), Middle French canoa (1569 in a translation from Spanish), Middle French, French †canoue (c1570, rare), †canoe (16th cent. in a translation from Italian), canot (1599: see note), Portuguese canoa (1533), Italian canoa (beginning of the 16th cent., earliest in plural form canoe), and also (probably partly via French) Dutch †cano, †canoa, †canno (all 1590s), †canoe (1602 or earlier), †kanoo (1651 or earlier; now kano), German †canoa (1599 or earlier; now Kanu, probably after the English pronunciation).Note on Spanish. For historical reasons, the Spanish word is most likely to have been borrowed from Taino. Cognates are also found in other Arawak languages. Their relationship to similar words in Cariban languages is unclear. Note on French. French canot shows remodelling of the final syllable after -ot -ot suffix (confirming a pronunciation with final /oː/ by the end of the 16th cent.). From the 17th cent. this word has expanded in sense to include various types of small boats much more generally (e.g. denoting a ship's boat in 1677); this has become the usual sense. French now uses canoë (also canoé ) to denote canoes specifically (1867; < English), although in Canadian French, canot is still also used to include canoes. Variant forms. (i) The Spanish etymon is most closely reflected by the β. forms, although in some cases, the Spanish word has been transmitted via Latin and probably also via other Romance languages with a similar form in the nominative singular (many of the early European explorers were native speakers of Spanish, Italian, or Portuguese, and were often familiar with more than one of these languages, as well as Latin). (ii) The α. forms appear to reflect the current pronunciation with final /uː/ (earliest in canoo). The origin of this pronunciation is unclear, but it appears to be paralleled in occasional rare and early forms in some Romance languages. (iii) The δ. forms apparently reflect the pronunciation (with final /oː/) of French canot and perhaps also Dutch kano (which itself was probably influenced by French). (iv) The current spelling canoe (see γ. forms) is first attested in quot. 1587 at sense 1γ. , in a source that also uses the forms canoa and (in the plural) canoaes . This form may show influence from French canoe or its apparent model Italian canoe , plural of canoa ; the English form is itself attested earliest in the plural (as canoes ). Some early modern English spellings with diacritics (e.g. canoès (1660)) suggest that the final two vowels could be pronounced separately (as would be expected with the Italian plural form). Such a pronunciation is also recorded (in dictionaries) in the 18th cent., and the much later borrowing of the English word into French as canoë (pronounced /kanɔe/) may suggest that it survived in English into the 19th cent. The (now standard) pattern of using γ. spellings but a pronunciation with final /uː/ is attested (in rhymes) from at least the 18th cent.

Etymology: < canoe n. Compare earlier canoeable adj.