a flat boat, very long and narrow, chiefly used at Venice to row on the canals. The word is Italian, gondola. Du Cange derives it from the vulgar Greek κονδύλης, "a bark," or "little ship;" Lancelot deduces it from γόνδα, a term in Athenæus for a sort of vase.

The middle-sized gondolas are upwards of thirty feet long and four broad: they always terminate at each end in a very sharp point, which is raised perpendicularly to the full height of a man.

The address of the Venetian gondoliers, in passing along their narrow canals, is very remarkable: there are usually two to each gondola, and they row by pushing before them. The fore-man rests his ear on the left side of the gondola: the hind man is placed on the stern, that he may see the head over the tilt or covering of the gondola, and rests his ear, which is very long, on the right side of the gondola.

Gondola is also the name of a passage-boat of six or eight oars, used in other parts of the coast of Italy.