pontoon
pronunciation
How to pronounce pontoon in British English:
UK [pɒnˈtu:n]
How to pronounce pontoon in American English:
US [pɑnˈtun]
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- Noun:
- (nautical) a floating structure (as a flat-bottomed boat) that serves as a dock or to support a bridge
- a float supporting a seaplane
Word Origin
- pontoon
- pontoon: English has two words pontoon. The earlier, ‘floating structure’ [17], comes via French ponton from Latin pontō ‘bridge made of boats’, a derivative of pōns ‘bridge’. (Pontō, presumably the same word, was also used for a sort of Gaulish boat, and in that sense is the source of English punt.) Pontoon the card game [20] is an alteration of French vingt-et-un ‘twenty-one’ (the perfect score in pontoon being twenty-one) based on the other pontoon.
- pontoon (n.)
- "flat-bottomed boat" (especially one to support a temporary bridge), 1670s, from French pontoon, from Old French ponton (14c.) "bridge, drawbridge, boat-bridge; flat-bottomed boat," from Latin pontonem (nominative ponto) "flat-bottomed boat," from pons "bridge" (see pons). Pontoon bridge is first recorded 1778.
Example
- 1. Following the chinese retreat , vietnamese in lang son province ford the ky cuong river on makeshift pontoon rafts , as the existing bridge sits collapsed .