umiak
(ˈuːmɪæk)
Also umiack, umyak, oomia(c)k.
[Eskimo.]
A large Eskimo boat, consisting of a wooden frame with skins drawn over it, and propelled by paddles.
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) L b, The canoe is called kaiak, or man's boat, to distinguish it from umiak, the woman's boat. 1819 Sir J. Ross Voy. Disc. I. iv. 55 The boat was called an umiack. 1845 Life T. Simpson xiii. 258, I procured an oomiak or family canoe. 1863 A. Young Naut. Dict. (ed. 2) 431 In Greenland, the umyak is the boat worked exclusively by the women, as the kayak is by the men. 1884 Good Words Feb. 96/1 We quitted the whale-boat..and took a small umiak, on account of weight. 1894 Outing (U.S.) XXIII. 390/1 Huge, lumbering oomiacks, loaded to the rail with a mixed cargo of men, women, children, and dogs, all howling, is an entertaining..sight. 1900 Scribner's Mag. Sept. 294/2 Well-made models of kayaks and umiaks. |