Friday, April 15, 2011

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 "champoto 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 

1 comment:

Kathy ... aka Nana said...

And now we know. Thanks for that info ... for the educational start to my Saturday. ;-)

Have a blessedly wonderful weekend!