PYJAMAS AND SHAMPOO 191 



in the plural, and the Z in Chintz is no doubt a 

 perversion, through misunderstanding, of the ter- 

 minal S. Lac is another Indian word which has 

 retained its own meaning, but it has gone beyond 

 it and given rise to a verb " to lacquer." 



With these perhaps should be mentioned Pyjamas 

 and Shampoo, both of which have undergone strange 

 perversions. Pyjama is an Indian name for loose 

 drawers or trousers tied with a cord round the 

 waist, such as Mussulmans of both sexes wear. In 

 India the Pyjama was long ago adopted, with a 

 loose coat to match, as a more decent and comfort- 

 able costume than the British nightshirt, and when 

 Anglo-Indians retired they brought the fashion 

 home with them, English tailors called the whole 

 costume a " Pyjama suit," but the second word 

 was soon dropped and the first improved into the 

 plural number. 



"Shampoo" comes from a verb " champna," to 

 press or squeeze, and the imperative, " champo," 

 as often happens, was the form in which it became 

 English. Forbes, in his Oriental Memoirs, writes 

 of " the effects of opium, champoing and other 

 luxuries indulged in by Oriental sensualists." When 

 the medical profession in England began to patronise 

 the practice, it assumed a more dignified name, 

 " massage," and the old word was relegated to the 

 hairdressers, who appropriated it to the washing 

 of the head, an operation with which the word has 

 no proper relation at all. 

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