travois

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English

WOTD – 7 August 2023

Etymology

PIE word
*tréyes
A c. 1910 photograph of a Native American man with a horse-drawn travois (sense 1).

The noun is derived from Michif travawy (IPA(key): /tɹæˈvɔɪ/), from Canadian French travail (“travois”),[1] from French travail, from Middle French travail, from Old French travail (“frame for restraining horses and cattle for medical treatment or shoeing”), from Late Latin tripālium (“torture device consisting of three stakes”),[2] from Latin tripālis (“having, or propped up by, three pales or stakes”) (from tri- (prefix meaning ‘three’) + pālus (“pale, stake”)) + -ium (suffix forming nouns).

The spelling travois and pronunciations /ˈtɹævwɑ(ː)/, /tɹævˈwɑ/ are probably influenced by French -ois (suffix forming adjectives relating to particular countries, regions, or cities, their associated inhabitant names, and the local languages or dialects).[1]

The verb is derived from the noun.[3]

Pronunciation

Noun

travois (plural travoises or travois)

  2. (originally and chiefly Canada, US, historical) A frame, often consisting of two poles tied together at one end to form a V-shaped structure with the vertex attached to a dog, horse, etc., or held by a person and the other ends touching the ground, which was used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land.
    • 1892, Julian Ralph, “‘Talking Musquash’: Concluding the Sketch of the History and Work of the Hudson Bay Company”, in On Canada’s Frontier , New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, , →OCLC, pages 236–237:
      On the plains they will have horses dragging travoises, dogs with travoises, women and children loaded with impedimenta, […]
    • 1994, Cormac McCarthy, chapter I, in The Crossing (The Border Trilogy; 2), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A Knopf, →ISBN, page 5:
      Riding out for wood he watched his shadow and the shadow of the horse and travois cross those palings tree by tree. Boyd rode in the travois holding the axe as if he'd keep guard over the word they'd gathered […]
  3. (by extension)
    1. A similar piece of equipment used to transport something by dragging; especially a stretcher dragged by a horse, mule, etc., used to transport an ill or injured person.
    2. (Canada, US, forestry, archaic) A sled dragged by a horse or ox to transport logs, with one end of each log on the sled and the other end touching the ground.

Alternative forms

Hypernyms

Translations

Verb

travois (third-person singular simple present travoises, present participle travoising, simple past and past participle travoised)

  1. (transitive) To transport (someone or something) by means of a travois.
  2. (intransitive, rare) To use a travois to transport a load.

Translations

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “travois, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “travois, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ Etymology and history of “travail2”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.
  3. ^ “travois, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.

Further reading

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