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URL: https://www.etymonline.com/word/pajamas

⇱ Pajamas - Etymology, Origin & Meaning

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Origin and history of pajamas

pajamas(n.)

also pajamahs, 1800, pai jamahs "loose trousers tied at the waist," worn by Muslims in India and adopted by Europeans there, especially for nightwear, from Hindi pajama, probably from Persian paejamah, literally "leg clothing," from pae "leg" (from PIE root *ped- "foot") + jamah "clothing, garment." The modern U.S. spelling is by 1845; British spelling tends toward pyjamas.

Entries linking to pajamas

1966, abstracted from pajamas (q.v.). Much earlier English picked up jam "a kind of frock for children" (1793) from Hindi jamah.

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Other versions that lasted through the century are cat's whiskers (1923), cat's pajamas, cat's meow....

For Cat's meow, cat's pajamas, see bee's knees. For let the cat out of the bag, see bag (n.)....

mid-14c., panten, "breathe hard or rapidly," perhaps a shortening of Old French pantaisier "gasp, puff, pant, be out of breath, be in distress" (12c.), which is probably from Vulgar Latin *pantasiare "be oppressed with a nightmare, struggle for breathing during a nightmare," lite

Middle English slepere, from Old English slæpere "one who sleeps, one who is inclined to sleep soundly or much," agent noun from sleep (v.). The meaning "dormant or inoperative thing" is from 1620s. The meaning "railway car fitted with berths in which beds can be made" is by 1875

Old English freond "one attached to another by feelings of personal regard and preference," from Proto-Germanic *frijōjands "lover, friend" (source also of Old Norse frændi, Old Danish frynt, Old Frisian friund, Dutch vriend, Middle High German friunt, German Freund, Gothic frijo

late 14c., "observation as the source of knowledge; actual observation; an event which has affected one," from Old French esperience "experiment, proof, experience" (13c.), from Latin experientia "a trial, proof, experiment; knowledge gained by repeated trials," from experientem

mid-14c., in the Church sense, "a freeing from temporal punishment for sin, remission from punishment for sin that remains due after absolution," from Old French indulgence or directly from Latin indulgentia "complaisance, a yielding; fondness, tenderness, affection; remission,"

late 14c., "a thought, a notion, that which is mentally conceived," from conceiven (see conceive) based on analogy of deceit/deceive and receipt/receive. The sense evolved from "something formed in the mind" to "fanciful or witty notion, ingenious thought" (1510s), to "vanity, ex

1530s, "child-rearing," also "the training of animals," from French education (14c.) and directly from Latin educationem (nominative educatio) "a rearing, training," noun of action from past-participle stem of educare (see educate). Originally of instruction in social codes and m

late 15c., "interior, inward, internal," from Old French intrinsèque "inner" (14c.), from Medieval Latin intrinsecus "interior, internal," from Latin intrinsecus (adv.) "inwardly, on the inside," from intra "within" (see intra-) + secus "along, alongside," from PIE *sekw-os- "fol

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