luge
n. C / Un. a sport where people slide down an ice track on a small, fast sled. It is similar to bobsleigh but much smaller and faster.
n. a high-speed winter sport involving a small sled with two runners, steered by the athlete while lying on their back. Often used as a synonym for the sled itself.
The luge team won gold at the winter games.
Unlike bobsleigh, which carries four people, a luge is a single-person or double-person sled that reaches incredible speeds on the ice.
The luge track features several sharp turns and steep drops, requiring the athlete to maintain perfect balance and precise steering at velocities exceeding ninety miles per hour.
The noun is borrowed from Swiss French or Franco-Provençal luge, from Medieval Latin scludia, from Late Latin sclodia, of Celtic origin, from Gaulish stludio, possibly from Proto-Indo-European sleydʰ- (“to slide, slip; to be slick or slippery”). If so, it is related to sled and sleigh. Sense 2.2 (“drinking utensil”) is from its resemblance to the tracks on which luges race. The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates * Irish slaod (“raft, float”) * Old Breton stloit (“sliding; traction”) (modern Breton stlej (“sleigh”)) * Welsh llithr (“slide, slippage”)