Luge

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /luː(d)ʒ/

Definitions

1. A small sled ridden by one or two people lying on their backs, used for racing down icy tracks at high speeds
2. A competitive sliding sport involving a lightweight, one- or two-person sled that navigates a narrow, twisting, and icy track at remarkable velocities
3. It refers to both the sled used for racing and a winter sport in which participants glide down a carefully engineered, icy course

Etymology: The sled's name may come from a Gaulish word for sliding. Speakers of Swiss French or Franco-Provençal borrowed "luge" from Medieval Latin "scludia," which traces back through Late Latin "sclodia" to "stludio," a word of Celtic origin. That Celtic root may go back to an Indo-European base meaning "to slide, slip, or be slippery," which would link the sled to the English "sled" and "sleigh." Related forms survive in Welsh "llithr" (slide, slippage) and in Breton "stlej" (sleigh), though these connections are tentative. Because of its link to the sliding track, the word also gave its name to a drinking vessel. Ice luges, carved blocks of ice with a channel down which liquor is poured, take their shape from the grooved tracks where the sleds race. The sense is a visual echo: a rider lying on the sled and a drink running down an icy trough look similar enough to share one name.

Synonyms: sled, bobsled, toboggan