piragua, periagua
(pɪˈrægwə, pɛrɪˈægwə)
Forms: α. 7– piragua; 7 piragoua, 8 pirogua, peragua, peraouger, 9 peroqua. β. 7 periago(e, -yago, -eago, -aqua, perriaguer, 8 perriagua, -ago, periaguay, -auger, perriaugre, -awger, 8–9 periagua, -aga. γ. 8 petty-oager, pettiagua, -augua, -awga, -auger, -augre, petiaguay, -augre, pettie augre, 9 petty-auga, -auger, petiaugua. See also pirogue.
[orig. a. Sp. piragua, a. Carib piragua a dug-out; subseq. much corrupted, esp. by popular reference of the initial part to peri- and petty.]
A. Illustration of Forms.
| α [1535 Oviedo (1851) I. 171 Llamanlas los Caribes piraguas.] 1609 Virginia richly valued 41 A piragua or ferrie bote. 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 343 They..betake themselves to their Canoes, or Piragoua. 1684 B. Sharp Voy. (1729) 54 They took one Peragua which they found at anchor. 1716 B. Church Hist. Philip's War (1867) II. 127 Maj. Church and his Forces were coming against them..with 24 Peraougers, meaning Whale-boats. 1792 tr. Rochon's Madagascar in Pinkerton Voy. (1814) XVI. 797 And because the canvas..is impenetrable to water, the hammock becomes a real pirogua. 1839 Marryat Phant. Ship xxvii, The peroqua rapidly approached. 1901 Blackw. Mag. Feb. 164 As soon as the prow of the piragua grounded. |
| β 1672 Sir W. Talbot Discov. J. Lederer 18 People, whom they..force away..in Periago's. 1691 Proc. agst. French in Select. fr. Harl. Misc. (1793) 474 Making their escape in their swift periaquas. 1696 S. Carolina Stat. (1837) II. 105 Any boat, perriaguer or canoe. 1697 Pereago [see B. 1]. 1702 C. Mather Magn. Chr. ii. App. (1852) 171 The periaga kept busking to and again. 1719 Periagua [see B. 1]. 1733 N. Jersey Arch. XI. 311 A large new Perriagua of about 31 Foot in length. 1736 Ibid. 452 The Owners of the other two Boats and Periauger. 1738 Ibid. 532 Chased by three Perriagoes. 1750 G. Hughes Barbadoes 5 Coming hither..in their small canoes, or Perriawgers. 1765 in F. B. Hough Siege of Detroit (1860) 115 Three Battoes and two Perriaugres. 1778 J. Carver Trav. N. Amer. 498 The French traders..make of them periaguays. 1804 C. B. Brown tr. Volney's View Soil U.S. 74 Two boats (periagas) were detached from Detroit. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. xiv. (1873) 294 The periagua is a strange rough boat. |
| γ 1703 W. Dampier Voy. (1729) III, Our Craft was but Canoes and Petty-Oagers. 1736 N. Jersey Arch. XI. 451 He recover'd himself and seized..a Pettiauger of Alderman Romer. 1736 Pettiawga [see B. 2]. 1739 Whitefield in Life & Jrnls. (1756) 306 We went in a Pettiagua over the Sound. 1740 Hist. Jamaica 298 A Petiaguay and Half-Galley. 1776 N. Greene in Sparks Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853) I. 301 Our people ran the petiaugres ashore. |
B. Signification.
1. A long narrow canoe hollowed from the trunk of a single tree, and sometimes deepened by the addition of planks along the sides, or widened by being built of two curved sections with a flat bottom inserted between them.
| 1609 [see A. α]. 1630 Capt. Smith Trav. & Adv. 52 There were six Peryagoes, which are huge great trees formed as your Canowes, but so laid out on the sides with boords, they will seeme like a little Gally. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. (1699) 29 Pereago's and Canoa's..are nothing but the Tree it self made hollow Boat wise, and the Canoa generally sharp at both ends, the Pereago at one only, with the other end flat. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. ix. (1840) 149 To make myself a canoe or periagua. 1794 Rigging & Seamanship I. 242 Periaguas..double and single canoes, used by the natives of..islands in the south seas. 1843 Prescott Mexico vi. v. (1864) 367 The canoes and piraguas of the enemy. |
2. An open flat-bottomed schooner-rigged vessel; a sort of two-masted sailing barge, used in America and the W. Indies.
| 1667 Lond. Gaz. No. 126/4 A small Vessel of ours called a Periagoe,..chasing and taking his Shallop laden with Provisions. 1736 Wesley Jrnl. 4 Apr., I set out for Frederica in a pettiawga—a sort of flat-bottomed barge. 1744 F. Moore Voy. Georgia 49 These Periaguas are long flat-bottom'd Boats, carrying from 25 to 30 Tons. They have a kind of a Forecastle and a Cabbin; but the rest open, and no Deck. They have two Masts..and Sails like Schooners. They row generally with two Oars only. 1804 Naval Chron. XI. 456 A Petiàugua, a two-mast Boat used by the Caribs. 1898 Rudder Dec. 407/2 Let go our hook just ahead of a large periauger-rigged sharpie, called the Pirate. 1899 Ibid. Feb. 53/1 Her rig is that of a perianger [sic]—or, as some call it, a double cat—having two masts with a boom and gaff sail on each. |