Other forms: tobogganing, toboggans
A toboggan is a flat sledge for sliding down snowy hills. No runners underneath, just a curved board and whoever can hold on.
The word came into English from the Mi'kmaq language of eastern Canada, and it kept its shape along with its name: a true toboggan is a plank curled up at the front, unlike a sledge on runners. It works as a verb as well, and to toboggan is to ride one — they spent the afternoon tobogganing. In Britain most people say sledge for everything and keep toboggan for the long wooden sort, while in North America it is the ordinary word for the whole family.
mic
tepaqan
French
tabaganne
English, today
toboggan
Borrowed from French tabaganne, from mic tepaqan. The noun is attested since 1829, the verb since 1846. Both derive from French tabaganne, which derives from an alg - word, probably mic tepaqan or Abenaki dabôgan, influenced by similar words in other Eastern Canadian Algonquian languages. The sense of "hat" is recorded since 1929 and is short for toboggan cap (1928), a cap suitable for wearing while tobogganing.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 2 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word