Oh, good research there. Not surprising that it started out as a foreign word. The British likely introduced it into the language from their colonial headquarters in Calcutta, Bengal.

It's also a fact that the human mind confuses name and form and usually misses the forest for the trees.

I have a rather strong thought-form for that word, of tiny wooden row boats used for shuttling people and goods from ship to shore and vice-versa. Partly I think they were so tiny because wooden boats are damn heavy! And they had to hoist it aboard all the time.