My Filipino / Tagalog WOTD: A quant word I discovered re: translation of "boat" to Tagalog / Filipino: DAWONG (nautical use, perhaps, obsolete) = a ship used to cross vast bodies of water. The interesting bit about "dawong" to me is it's being a nautical word. I derived it from the TL translation of the "big dipper," (dawong-dawungan). Our Filipino ancestors used the heavenly bodies for navigation. It is quite logical that 1 of the ancient names for "ship" was specifically for nautical use.