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Pallakku is the Tamil word for a covered litter carried on the shoulders of bearers using horizontal poles. The word is Dravidian in origin, possibly from the root pala (many) — many people carry it. Palanquins were used across South Asia for centuries, but the word that stuck in European languages came from Tamil, not from Sanskrit, Hindi, or Persian.

Portuguese traders and missionaries in South India during the 1500s adopted pallakku as palanquim. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to establish permanent trading posts on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts, and their vocabulary for Indian objects — veranda, coir, copra, catamaran — drew heavily from Dravidian languages. Palanquim appeared in Portuguese texts from the early 16th century. From Portuguese, the word entered Dutch as palankijn, French as palanquin, and English as palanquin by the late 1500s.

The palanquin was not mere luxury transport. In a subcontinent without paved roads, wheeled vehicles were often impractical. Palanquins crossed rivers, climbed mountain paths, and moved through mud. British colonial officials in India used palanquins routinely until railways and roads made them obsolete in the late 19th century. The word palanquin appears in dozens of British memoirs, administrative manuals, and travel accounts from India.

Modern South Indian temples still use pallakkus for deity processions. During festivals, the temple's deity is placed in an ornate pallakku and carried through the streets. The human transport use ended. The divine transport use continues. The word outlived its secular function by finding a sacred one.