Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·South Asia ·1680s
Cashmere
from Kashmīr (the region)
- Meaning
- Fine wool from the Kashmiri shawl trade.
- Source word
- Kashmīr (the region)
- Route into English
- British travellers bought shawls in the Punjab markets; the fabric's name replaced the region's English spelling over time.
- Arrived
- 1680s
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.