Friday Trivia

While shampooing my hair this morning with shampoo (note that the word is both verb and noun), I began to wonder how we got such an odd word.

Sham-poo. Sham as in fake? Poo as in, well, poo?

Well, as you know, that's not it at all.

And since I am sure that you are all agog to know the origin of the word, here it is:

From Dictionary.com: 1755–65;  earlier "champo"  to massage < an inflected form of Hindi cāmpnā  literally, to press.

 

And from Wikipedia: The word shampoo in English is derived from Hindi chāmpo (चाँपो [tʃãːpoː]),^[1] and dates to 1762.^[2] The Hindi word referred to head massage, usually with some form of hair oil. 

 

So, there you have it, dear reader!  Trivia to start your weekend.

 

You're welcome.

 

- Catherine