Plural of balsa; lightweight rafts or boats made from balsa wood, or the logs themselves used as floats.
From Spanish balsa (raft), likely from a Quechua word meaning float or raft. The term moved from South American languages into Spanish, then into English.
Thor Heyerdahl's 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition proved the ancients could've used balsas to cross oceans—showing that light, humble materials could achieve what heavy ships couldn't, revolutionizing our understanding of prehistoric exploration.
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