Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·South Asia ·1600s
Cot
from khaṭ
- Meaning
- A small, portable bed; a baby's crib.
- Source word
- khaṭ
- Route into English
- Hindi *khaṭ* (bedstead) → Anglo-Indian → English. The word replaced the older English *crib* in British military and colonial use; the camping-cot sense is a direct survival.
- Arrived
- 1600s
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.
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