Dictionary

tonga en · NOUN · etymology 1

From Hindi टाँगा (ṭāṅgā).

(India) A light, two-wheeled, horse-drawn carriage used for transportation in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
- Coming up along the Cart-Road a tonga passed me, and my pony, tired with standing so long, set off at a canter. 1890, Rudyard Kipling, Plain Tales from the Hills:
- When his tyre went flat, he leapt off and shouted for a tonga. 1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin, published 2005, page 13:
- The Muslim ladies who earlier moved out in covered palanquins, dolis and muhafas or completely veiled coaches and victorias are now obliged to go about in tongas, rikshaws and buses leaving aside the earlier scruples. 1972, Abulhasan 'Ali Nadvi, The Musalman, page 42:

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
tongas	Number=Plur		lexicographic
tanga		alternative	lexicographic

From Tonga.

(uncountable) A drug useful in neuralgia, derived from a Fijian plant supposed to be of the aroid genus Epipremnum.