Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·South Asia ·1610s (fabric), 1890s (garment)
Dungarees
from ḍuṅgrī
- Meaning
- Coarse cotton workwear; denim overalls.
- Source word
- ḍuṅgrī
- Route into English
- Hindi *ḍuṅgrī*, a coarse cloth from the Dongri area of Bombay → Anglo-Indian → English. First a fabric name, later a garment name; the American denim association is 20th-century.
- Arrived
- 1610s (fabric), 1890s (garment)
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.