Mehran of San Antonio, who grew up in Iran, notes that in Farsi, khaki means earthy or down-to-earth. English got the word through British military use in South Asia. By the 1840s, soldiers in northern India or what is now Pakistan were wearing a sturdy, dust-colored cloth known locally by a related Hindi/Urdu form. The shade was practical: dust and stains didn’t show much on fabric already the color of the road. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of ““Khaki” Links “Earthy” Farsi Roots with Business Casual Pants”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Good morning. My name is Mehran. I’m calling from San Antonio, Texas.
I had a question. Basically, it’s about khaki color.
I’m originally from Iran, and khaki in Farsi means earthly, or down to earth.
My question was, what is the origination of this? How did it enter the English language?
So in English, we have that K-H-A-K-I is how we spell it here.
It refers to a type of tan or brown fabric, usually sturdily made, perhaps worn by soldiers or people who are working outdoors.
And it goes back to the British history in the subcontinent.
The British picked it up during the British Raj, this period of rule.
And they picked it up in the north of India or in what is now Pakistan.
The Urdu, which is very similar to Hindi, but has a lot more influence from Farsi and even Arabic and some of the other languages that have historically been along those trade routes.
And so the word was borrowed from Farsi into the variety of Hindi slash Urdu spoken in Pakistan and now.
And then the British picked it up.
In the 1840s or so, they began to dress their soldiers in this particular type of fabric called, at the time, keiki by the locals, but kharki by the British, something like that.
Then it caught on from there because it’s a sturdy, reliable fabric that can take stains and the dust of the world is almost invisible on it.
It was one of the things that they loved about it.
And these days, in the languages of India and Pakistan and Afghanistan, it tends to mean dusty or earth-toned or earth-like or related to the ground, something like that.
So very similar. It’s interesting.
You’ve made a great historical connection there, Mehran.
I really appreciate it.
Okay.
Thank you.
Khalemam Noon.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Boy, we could just start a miniseries on all the awesome ways that Farsi has influenced the other languages of the world.
I mean, it shows up in some of the languages of southern Africa where you don’t quite know why there’s an influence there, but you can actually trace it back to trekkers and explorers and trade and wars and invaders.
And it’s incredible.
Call us if you’ve got a question or a guess about how a word is connected or related to another one.
Let us hear your theory.
877-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.
