What Does gondola Mean
In Byzantine Greek, the term kontoúra alluded to a type of boat with a short tail. That word came to Italian as gondola , which is the closest etymological antecedent for gondola .
A gondola is a small boat that lacks a deck and poles . Used mainly in Venice ( Italy ), gondolas have a carriage in their central part and are currently used for recreational purposes.
The gondolier is the one who is in charge of the propulsion and the steering of the gondola through his oar . In Venice , these long and narrow naves were the most important means of transport for many centuries, facilitating movement through the canals .
In the eighteenth century thousands of gondolas came to navigate the Venetian canals. At the end of the following century, however, their manufacture was abandoned and their use was reduced, being replaced by motor boats .
Regarding the physical characteristics of the Venetian gondola, we can say that it is large and thin, with a clear asymmetry in its contour that makes propulsion easier using a single paddle. In addition, a longitudinal curvature is appreciated that has the purpose of reducing the area of contact with the water to the minimum possible.
To support the oar, the gondola has a kind of fork made of walnut wood, a very common tree in Europe. Thanks to the complexity of its form, the gondolier can perform up to eight different maneuvers, including forward, slow paddle, brake , turn and backward navigation, known as ciar , a verb used in the field of nautical.
A piece of furniture that allows the display of different elements is also called a gondola . The markets and supermarkets , in this context, resort to gondolas to expose their products .
Customers, therefore, walk the aisles of the establishment to see the products displayed in the gondolas, which appear next to their price . If a person wants to buy an item, they must take it from the gondola and take it to the checkout to make the corresponding payment. This means that markets and supermarkets tend to operate under a self - service mode (each buyer has to take the products they want directly from the gondola, and not request them from a seller).
Once again in the field of vehicles, the term gondola also refers to a type of railway that receives various other names, such as ferrobus, railcar, railbus, light motor car and busbar . It is a very light vehicle that can have between one and four units. It is propelled by the action of a group of electric or thermal motors.
In the field of literature, on the other hand, we have the poetic collection entitled Funeral Gondola , written by Tomas Tranströmer , a renowned Swedish author. The title was chosen in honor of The Gloomy Gondola , a piece by Franz Liszt . Broadly speaking, the work deals with the poet's difficulty to continue with his passion after having suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.
In large cities, gondolas are also common for facade maintenance , platforms that are suspended by using ropes connected to a mechanism to move them in a vertical direction. Its use is linked to building repair and restoration work, but also for cleaning walls and windows. They are especially useful for treating high-rise structures, and can be tailored seamlessly to the specific characteristics of each building, which affects their design, fabrication, and installation.