Other forms: paddling, paddles, paddled
A paddle is the short free oar used to push a canoe along. Dip the paddle, a double paddle, paddle upstream.
It is not attached to the boat, which is the difference from an oar, and the paddler faces forwards where a rower faces back. To paddle also means to walk in shallow water, which is a separate old word. Note paddling pool.
1nounpaddleA short oar not fixed to the boat.
“He dipped the paddle into the water and pushed the canoe forward.”
2verbwalkTo walk in shallow water.
“The children took off their shoes and paddled at the edge of the sea.”
paddle is an oar, or a wading.
Partly from an old verb meaning to splash, partly from Middle English padell, a small spade.
Latin
patella — pan, plate
Medieval Latin
padela
Middle English
padell — small spade
English, today
paddle
Partly from the verb paddle "to splash, dabble"; see below and partly from Middle English padell (“small spade”). Middle English padell is from Medieval Latin padela, itself of uncertain origin: perhaps an alteration of Middle English spaddle (see also spaddle), a diminutive of spade; or from Latin patella (“pan, plate”), the diminutive of patina, or a merger of the two. Compare Ancient Greek πηδάλιον (“rudder, steering oar”), derived from πηδόν (“the blade of an oar; an oar”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Travel & Transport