​PRAM (Du. praam), the name of a flat-bottomed boat or barge used as a “lighter” for discharging and loading cargo in the ports of the Baltic and North Sea. The word, which is common in various forms to all the languages bordering on those seas, is originally Slavonic; its ultimate etymology connects it with the words found in all Indo-European languages which are to be traced to the root par-, to go through, travel; cf. “fare,” “ferry,” “far,” Gr. πόρος, way, Lat. portare, carry, &c.