Word of the Week – Shampoo

When we think of shampoo, we have one thing in mind–soap, mostly for the hair. Maybe, if pressed, for other fibrous or shaggy things, like carpet.

But as it turns out, the original meaning has nothing at all to do with hair. Shampoo first began to be used in English in 1760, but it wasn’t a noun at all. It was a verb, meaning “to massage.” It came from the Hindi word champi that meants “to press, to knead the muscles.”

It took until the 1830s for the word to become a noun–but even so, it meant “a massage.” It wasn’t until the 1860s that it began to be associated with hair, for the massaging motion used to wash it. It wasn’t until the 1860s that the word began to be used for “the soap used to wash one’s hair.”

As for carpets, upholstery, etc? That extended meaning of shampooing other things didn’t come around until the 1950s!

Word Nerds Merch!