Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·South Asia ·1800s
Pyjamas
from pāy-jāma (Persian/Urdu)
- Meaning
- Leg-garment — loose trousers tied at the waist.
- Source word
- pāy-jāma (Persian/Urdu)
- Route into English
- Adopted by British colonials as sleepwear; the word followed the garment home and became standard in Britain by 1880.
- Arrived
- 1800s
From South Asia
Three centuries of British colonial contact — East India Company, Raj, military, domestic life — deposited a distinct Hindi/Urdu/Bengali/Sanskrit layer in everyday English.
English borrows.
Browse the full loanword atlas or explore another source language.