panga

1 of 2

noun (1)

pan·​ga ˈpäŋ-gə 

plural pangas

: any of various small boats often used for fishing

specifically : a skiff with a raised bow that is typically powered by an outboard motor

The water was an ever-shifting palette of blues and greens as we motored across Ascension Bay in a 23-foot panga, the de facto fishing craft for these parts.

—Chris Santella

panga

2 of 2

noun (2)

pan·​ga ˈpäŋ-gə 

: machete

Examples of panga in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

The boats used are often small pangas that typically are overloaded with people and poorly maintained. —Michael Smolens, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Apr. 2024

The ship sails three routes, taking eight to 15 days, and guests get plenty of snorkeling, hiking, kayaking, and panga rides along the way. —Karen Catchpole, Travel + Leisure, 7 Feb. 2024

The panga was spotted around 7 a.m. by someone who notified federal agents, and lifeguards responded to the disabled craft, said Border Patrol spokesperson Eric Lavergne. —Karen Kucher, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Feb. 2024

According to documents filed in the case, Preciado is a fisherman who was recruited to captain the panga because of his boating skills. —Alex Riggins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Dec. 2023

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

probably borrowed from Panamanian Spanish; further origin uncertain

Note: Early citations for panga in English localize the word around the Panama Canal Zone (see, for example, John Edwin Hoag, "Outboard Motoring through the Panama Canal," Motor Boating, vol. 35, no. 1 [January, 1925], p. 284. "With our little fifteen foot panga (Spanish for rowboat) we got about into the middle of Gatun Lake around 2 P.M…"). There appears to be minimal evidence for the word in American Spanish earlier than the middle of the twentieth century. Augusto Malaret enters the word in the supplement (1942) to his Diccionario de Americanismos with the definition "bote, lancha" ("boat, launch") citing a Panamanian informant. In Philippine Spanish the word panga has a much longer documentation. Wenceslao Emilio Retana's Diccionario de Filipinismos (New York/Paris, 1921) defines panga as "embarcación, especie de baroto, bien acabada y ligera, que navega a remo y a la vela" ("boat, a kind of baroto [large dugout canoe], well-finished and light, that is directed by oar and by sail"); his earliest citation for the word, which he claims is of Tagalog origin, is from Juan de la Concepción's Historia general de Philipinas (Manila, 1788). The Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, conflates panga with American Spanish bongo, a widespread word from the Gulf of Mexico to Chile for various small river and coastal craft, though panga and bongo appear to be quite distinct in distribution, and it remains to be proven that they are of common origin. Regarding bongo, first attested in 1748, see further Nicolás del Castillo Mathieu, "El aporte negro-africano al léxico de Colombia," Encuentro Internacional sobre el español de América hacia el siglo XXI, vol. 2 (Bogotá, 1992), pp. 41-99. Castillo Mathieu believes, on rather slim evidence, that bongo is of African origin.

Noun (2)

Swahili

First Known Use

Noun (1)

1811, in the meaning defined above

Noun (2)

1925, in the meaning defined above