In a recent episode of Wheel of Fortune the contestants struggled to solve the puzzle ‘Renting a pedal boat’. Along with many others, including one of my parents, I was confused by this. I have never heard of a pedal boat.

After doing a little bit of research online, I came to find that what I, and apparently quite a number of other Americans, have always called a paddle boat, is indeed actually a pedal boat. I am floored!

A paddle boat is a boat steered with paddles. It seems that this can be a canoe or a kayak or something like one of those river steamboats; while a pedal boat is the kind that you steer with your feet on something like bike pedals. Shocking, I know. Now granted, those pedals turn paddles under water to make the boat move, so calling it a paddle boat is not entirely wrong.

I imagine at some point in the past someone misheard or mispronounced pedal as paddle and it spread, as these things do.