A small boat, usually carried on or towed behind a larger ship, used for short trips or emergencies.
From Hindi 'ḍiṅgī,' the word entered English in the 1600s through maritime trade with India. The term originally referred to any small Indian rowing boat and gradually became the standard English word for a ship's tender.
Dinghies saved countless sailors' lives before modern rescue technology—they were literally the lifeboats of the age of sail. The word's journey from Hindi to English shows how maritime contact spread nautical vocabulary across languages.
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