use of "dhow" as a collective term to refer to the boats of the Indian Ocean with characteristic "Arabian" sails, was introduced definitely by Europeans. Since in the European tradition ships were classified mainly according to their sailing equipment, all the ships of the Indian Ocean that carried similar Arabian sails and looked more or less the same to the untrained European eye were known to Europeans by a single word, "dhow".

At the same time, neither the Arabs nor the Indians use the term "dhow" to refer to their vessels collectively.