Luges

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small, light vehicle designed for sliding down snow-covered hills
2. A competitive sport where participants race on these specialized sleds
3. The act of using such a vehicle, typically in winter athletic events

Etymology: The luge is a sled ridden lying on the back, feet first, a detail that matters because the French word for it, "luge," once named something much older and more humble. Its ancestry runs through Swiss French or Franco-Provençal "luge," from Medieval Latin "scludia" and Late Latin "sclodia," a word of Celtic origin that probably came from a Gaulish form built on a root meaning to slide or slip. That same root sits behind "sled" and "sleigh," and cognates survive in Irish "slaod" (raft or float), Welsh "llithr" (slide or slippage), and Breton "stlej" (sleigh). The sport took its name from the sled, and the sled from a word for sliding, so the luge is at heart a machine named for nothing more than a slippery movement. Drinkers later borrowed the name for something else entirely: an ice-carved glass whose grooved channel resembles the luge track, which is why the same word can mean both a racing sled and a vessel for alcohol.

Synonyms: sleds, sledges