Also tabagane, ta-, tobognay, tarbog(g)in, treboggin, tobogin, -en, toboggen, tobaugan, tobogan, tabougin, tabogan. [Adaptation of a Canadian Indian name of a sleigh or sledge; given in French spelling tabaganne by Le Clercq, Nouvelle Relation de la Gaspesie, 1691, p. 70 (J. Platt, in N. & Q., 9th Ser. XII. 467). The nearest Indian forms cited are Micmac (Lower Canada, New Brunsw., Nova Scotia) tobâkun (Rand, Micmac Dict., 1888), and Abnaki (Quebec and Maine) udãbãgan (Trumbull). Other allied Algonquian langs. have, Montaignais utapan, Cree otâbânâsk (Lacombe), Odjibwa odaban-ak: cf. PUNG sb.2]
1. Originally, a light sledge consisting of a thin strip of wood turned up in front, used by the Canadian Indians for transport over snow; now, a similar vehicle, sometimes with low runners, used in the sport of coasting (esp. down prepared slopes of snow or ice).
1829. G. Head, Forest Scenes N. Amer., 64. After leaving Fredericton there was no town nor village at which the required articles could be procured: namely, a couple of tobogins, a tobogin bag, a canteen … two pairs of snow shoes.
1846. G. Warburton, Hochelaga, I. 122. One of the great amusements … is, to climb up to the top of this cone, and slide down again on a tarboggin.
1850. S. D. Huyghue, in Bentley’s Misc., XXVII. 152. Snow-shoes, mocassins, and tobaugans, for the use of the men.
1861. J. Leech, Pict. Life & Char., 78 (Punch Office publ.). Militaire recalls his Canadian experiences, builds a treboggin.
1863. H. Y. Hind, Labrador, I. 280. The tabognay is a little sledge upon which people in winter amuse themselves in descending hills covered with snow.
1865. P. B. St. John, Snow Ship, xv. 106. These tarbogins, or tabougins, as they are indifferently called, are small sleighs drawn by hand over the snow.
1874. Symonds, Sk. Italy & Greece (1898), I. i. 26. The little hand-sledge … which the English have christened by the Canadian term ‘toboggan.’
1880. Daily Tel., 18 Feb. The ‘toboggin’ is a wooden car … which is curled up at the lower extremity, or prow, so as to constitute a seat holding a couple of sitters.
1885. New Bk. Sports, 239. The steersman … gives the tobogan a start, and away they go down the hill.
1891. Month, LXXIII. 24. Travelling with dogs and toboggans during winter.
2. [f. next.] The practice or sport of tobogganing.
1879. Birmingham Weekly Post, 8 Feb., 1/4. We have heard of a new sport called toboggen, brought from Canada and adopted here when the ground is hilly enough by country house parties.
1896. R. S. S. Baden-Powell, Matabele Campaign, i, Madeira…. Scramble up on horses to the convent, up the long, steep, cobbled roads, and the grand toboggan down again in sliding cars.
3. attrib. and Comb., as toboggan-bag, -cap, -race, -sleigh, etc.; toboggan-slide, a steep incline for tobogganing, also called toboggan-chute, -run, or -shoot; also applied to an inclined series of rollers down which toboggans run.
1829. G. Head, Forest Scenes N. Amer., 64. The tobogin bag [for luggage] when full is … laced tightly on the machine by means of a cord.
1881. Standard, 22 Jan., 5/1. The Canadian … considers the snowy season the period of enjoyment. It is the sleigh-driving, the ‘coasting,’ and the ‘taboggan season.’
1887. O. W. Holmes, 100 Days in Europe, 150. Like what … would be a pretty steep toboggan slide.
1903. Daily Chron., 4 Feb., 6/1. He gets ready for the toboggan club’s train, which leaves Davos for the village of Wolfgang every morning.
1904. Times, 25 Aug., 7/5. The Royal party returned at noon in toboggan basket sleighs.
1907. C. Hill-Tout, Brit. N. Amer., Far West, v. 93. A toboggan-shaped basket with an opening near its curved end.
