Etymology Dictionary

PALANQUIN, PALANKEEN,  a light litter in which travellers are carried on men's shoulders.  (Hind.,—Skt.)   'A pallamkeen or litter;' Sir T. Herbert, Travels, 1665, p. 72.   Spelt palankee in Terry's Voyage to East India, 1655, p. 155 (Todd); palanquin in Skinner, ed. 1671.   The spelling palanquin is French; in Portuguese it is palanquim.—Hind. palang, a bed, bedstead; Forbes, Hindustani Dict., 1857, p. 202.   Cf. Pers. palank, palang, a bedstead; Rich. Dict. p. 335.   (Littré cites Siamese banlangko, Pali pallangka; Col. Yule, as cited in Wedgwood, gives the Pali form as palanki, a litter or couch carried on poles.   Mahn cites Javanese pálangki, older form palangkan; as well as Hindi pálki, which is evidently a contracted form.)   γ. All from Skt. paryaṅka, (Prakrit pallaṅka), a couch-bed, a bed; the change from r to l being very common.—Skt. pari, about, round (Gk. περί); and aṅka, a hook, the flank, &c.   Apparently from being wrapped round one.   The Skt. aṅka is allied to Lat. uncus, a hook, A.S. angel, a hook.   See Peri- and Angle (2).