Sari

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈsɑː.ɹi/

Definitions

1. A traditional garment worn by women in South Asia, consisting of a long piece of fabric draped around the body
2. A traditional attire from South Asia, it consists of a lengthy piece of fabric that is skillfully draped over the body, often complemented by a blouse and petticoat
3. An elegant garment commonly associated with South Asian culture, it is made of a continuous length of fabric elegantly wrapped around the waist and draped over the shoulder

Etymology: Sari comes from a Sanskrit word for a plain strip of cloth. In Sanskrit, "śāṭa" meant a strip of cloth, and its feminine form "śāṭī" was the garment's ancestor. The word passed through Sauraseni Prakrit, the vernacular of northern India, as "sāḍī," and later became "sāṛī" in Hindi and Urdu, the forms English borrowed from. The garment's name has a surprising relative in English. "Shawl" descends from the same Persian-linked chain of borrowings, making it a doublet of sari: two words that split off from one root and reached English by different routes. Where sari meant a draped length of cloth in South Asia, shawl came to English through Persian, so the two words share an ancestor while describing very different ways of wrapping the body.

Synonyms: saree, dress, garment, costume, attire