/ˈsɑːri/·noun·c. 1785 CE in English; attested in William Hodges and contemporaneous colonial accounts of South Asia·Established
Origin
From Sanskrit śāṭī (a strip of cloth), through Prakrit sāḍī and Hindi sāṛī into English sari by the 1780s — one of the rare loanwords that has kept its precise original meaning across more than two millennia and a dozen languages.
Definition
A garment worn predominantly by women in South Asia, consisting of a long unstitched length of fabric, typically five to nine yards, draped around the body in various regional styles over a petticoat and fitted blouse.
The Full Story
Sanskrit via Prakrit and HindiSanskrit attested c. 1000 BCE; English borrowing c. 1785 CEwell-attested
The English word 'sari' derives from Hindi/Urdu 'sāṛī' (साड़ी), which entered English in the late 18th century as British colonial contact with South Asia deepened. The Hindi/Urdu form descends from Prakrit 'sāḍī' (also sāḍi), the Middle Indo-Aryan stage of the word, attested in Prakrit literary sources in the early centuries CE. This Prakrit form tracesdirectly to Sanskrit 'śāṭī' (शाटी), meaning 'a strip of cloth' or 'a garment', attested in Sanskrit texts including the Amarakosha (c. 400 CE), the classical Sanskrit lexicon compiled by Amarasimha. Sanskrit 'śāṭī' belongs to a cluster of Sanskrit textile
Did you know?
The sari is among the oldest garments in continuous use anywhere in the world, yet the English word for it is only about 250 years old. What surprises most people is that Dravidian languages like Tamil and Telugu — which have their own ancient textile traditions entirely separate from Sanskrit — had to borrow a version of the word from Indo-Aryan, producing forms like Tamil cīrai and Telugu cīra. The garment existed in the south long before the word did; speakersadapted
that Tamil/Dravidian 'cīrai' (a garment) may represent a parallel or source form, though the relationship is debated. The word's semantic trajectory is exceptionally stable: from Sanskrit 'śāṭī' (strip of cloth) through Prakrit 'sāḍī' (garment) to Hindi/Urdu 'sāṛī' (the specific women's garment of South Asia) to English 'sari' (borrowed as a cultural term). The English attestation appears in late 18th-century colonial accounts, with the OED citing evidence from c. 1785. Key roots: śāṭī (Sanskrit: "a strip of cloth, a garment"), śāṭa / śāṭaka (Sanskrit: "cloth, a piece of woven fabric, a garment"), sāḍī (Prakrit: "a garment, a length of cloth"), *ćhāṭ- (Proto-Indo-Aryan (reconstructed): "to split, to tear; a torn or cut length").