Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·South Asia ·1760s
Shampoo
from cā̃po (Hindi-Urdu)
- Meaning
- Verb: to press, to knead — as in a scalp massage.
- Source word
- cā̃po (Hindi-Urdu)
- Route into English
- Brought to England by Sake Dean Mahomed, who opened "Shampooing Baths" in Brighton in 1814. The hair-wash sense stuck.
- Arrived
- 1760s
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.