Bateaux
/bæˈtoʊ/noun
Plural of bateau; a small boat or flat-bottomed vessel, especially one used on rivers.
Did you know?Bateaux is the French plural of bateau, and its deeper ancestry goes back to a Germanic word for a boat, showing how even elegant French words can hide very old seafaring roots.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*bautam
“Boat; vessel”
Old English
OE
bāt
“Boat, small vessel”
Old French
OF
bateau
“Boat”
Modern French
Fr
bateau
“Boat”
Modern English
English
bateaux
“Plural form borrowed from French, especially for certain types of boats”