Pashmina

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A luxurious material obtained from the soft undercoat of a specific breed of goat, primarily utilized in crafting elegant scarves and shawls
2. A fine fabric made using hair from a breed of Himalayan goats, celebrated for its incredible softness and insulating properties when made into clothing
3. A soft textile derived from the underbelly hair of a particular goat breed, typically employed in the creation of high-quality wraps and garments

Etymology: The fabric is named after its place of origin, not a material. "Pashmina" comes from Classical Persian "pašmīna", meaning "made of wool", formed from "pašm", "wool", with the adjectival suffix "-īna" that turns a material into something made of it. The root is the same one that gives "pašmīn", meaning woollen, so the word is essentially a description of the cloth rather than a brand or a proper name. The wool itself is the fine undercoat of the changthangi goat, raised at high altitude in the Himalayan plateau of Ladakh and Tibet. Because the animals grow this soft layer to survive bitter winters, the fibre is far finer than ordinary wool, and the cloth became prized across South Asia and the Persian-speaking world. Its English use is a borrowing from that Persian term, so the word reached English while carrying its original sense of "woollen" intact.

Synonyms: cashmere, shawl