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🌳 Tree bark layer 🛶 A canoe
birchbark

birchbark

8.9
A light canoe made by stretching birch bark over a wooden frame
  • noun
  • /ˈbɜrʧˌbɑrk/
  • US
translation icon : canoa de corteza de abedul
  • These vessels, a birchbark canoe and a European ship, represented the laws and customs of each people; the agreement stated that neither would impede the other's progress.
  • birchbark canoe

Examples

  • During our trip, we paddled through the calm lake in a birchbark canoe, enjoying the beauty of the surrounding nature.

  • This paper offers a beautifully detailed description of the making of a birchbark canoe by two experts in their seventies.

    Academic text (1990)

  • She leapt with pointed toes down the rock and into a birchbark canoe.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Spindler writes that jugglers were diviners and doctors of great power who entered small birchbark lodges to implore the spirits to heal the sick.

    Academic text (1997)

  • The Indigenous peoples of North America traditionally crafted a birchbark canoe, using the flexible bark of birch trees to cover a wooden frame.

  • The museum displayed an intricately made birchbark canoe, showcasing the traditional techniques of Native American craftsmanship.

Synonyms

birch bark
vsbirchbark
  • US
1 7.2

A light boat made from birch tree bark and used by Native people in North America

is the same meaning but written as a single compound form
birchbark canoe
vsbirchbark
  • US
8.4

A light boat made by covering a wooden frame with birch bark

is the same meaning but written as a single compound form

How Light

birchbark
  • US
8.9
to kayak
3 2.7
canoe
120 1.0
dugout canoe
1 5.3

Surface Forms

birchbark singular
birchbarks plural

Morphology

birchbark = birch + bark (semi-transparent) = birch + bark

The components indicate material (birch bark), but the specialized sense 'a canoe made from birch bark' is a cultural/metonymic extension not directly inferable by all learners.

Etymology

Birchbark also names a traditional canoe made by stretching the thin bark of a birch tree over a wooden frame, a skilled craft of Indigenous peoples in North America. So a birchbark canoe is literally a boat made from birch bark.