regatta: [17] The word regatta originated in Italy, and at first denoted a gondola race on the Grand Canal in Venice. It appears to have been derived from a Venetian dialect verb rigattare ‘contend, fight’, of uncertain origin. The first record of its application to a boat race in England is in June 1775, when a ‘regatta’ was held on the Thames: the Public advertiser noted that ‘The Regatta will keep at home many of our Nobility and wealthy Commoners’, and Dr Johnson wrote to his friend Mrs Thrale on June 21 ‘I am glad you are to be at the regatta’.
