bidarka

American  

[bahy-dahr-kuh] / baɪˈdɑr kə /

Sometimes bidara or baidarka

noun

1. a sealskin boat used by primarily by the Alaskan Aleuts.

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bidarka British  

/ baɪˈdɑːkiː, baɪˈdɑːkə /

noun

1. a canoe covered in animal skins, esp sealskin, used by the Inuit of Alaska

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Etymology

Origin of bidarka

First recorded in 1825–35; from Russian baĭdárka, equivalent to baĭdár(a) “kind of river craft” (apparently akin to baĭdák “river craft, barge,” Old Russian baidakŭ, bodakŭ, of obscure origin) + -ka diminutive suffix

Example Sentences

Even as his bidarka shot forward with its own momentum, he drew out from the forward hatch this sacred instrument and fitted to it the short harpoon.

From The Young Alaskans by Hough, Emerson

With his own paddle in his left hand clinched against the rim of the bidarka hatch, the chief with his right hand slowly and deliberately raised the nogock and its slate-tipped harpoon.

From The Young Alaskans by Hough, Emerson

He hauled up across the bidarka deck the body of the otter, a dark-brown creature, even at that season fairly well furred, and in weight about that of a good-sized dog.

From The Young Alaskans by Hough, Emerson

To George's inquiries they answered that their largest canoe was the three-holed bidarka on the cache outside.

From Pardners by Beach, Rex Ellingwood

To begin with, the frost that creates the ice clears the air of fog, and the steel-shod pole either sheers the bidarka off from the ice, or the ice off from the bidarka.

From Vikings of the Pacific The Adventures of the Explorers who Came from the West, Eastward by Laut, Agnes C. (Agnes Christina)