catamaran

Etymology

From Tamil கட்டுமரம் (kaṭṭumaram), from கட்டு (kaṭṭu, “to tie”) + மரம் (maram, “tree, wood”).

noun

1. A twin-hulled ship or boat.
2. (colloquial, rare, obsolete) A quarrelsome woman; a scold.
   She meddles with my prescriptions for your wife; she doctors the infant in private: you'll never have a quiet house or a quiet wife as long as that old Catamaran is here. 1889, William Makepeace Thackeray, Hobson's Choice
3. (obsolete) A raft of three pieces of wood lashed together, the middle piece being longer than the others, and serving as a keel on which the rower squats while paddling.
   Three or four strange-looking things now came close to our boat, which I understood were called ‘catamarans’, consisting of nothing more than two or three large trees, the trunk part only strongly lashed together, upon which sat two men nearly in a state of nature […] . 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 90
4. (obsolete) An old kind of fireship.