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WonderWord origin

'Shampoo' comes from Hindi chāmpo, a form of the verb chāmpnā, 'to press or knead'. It entered English in 1762 meaning a massage, came to mean washing the hair around 1860, and only after that became the name of the soap itself.

Etymology

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British traders and officials met the word in India, where 'shampooing' meant a massage of the head and body, often with oils. It became fashionable in Britain thanks to Sake Dean Mahomed, a traveller and entrepreneur born in Patna around 1759. In the 1810s he opened a bathhouse in Brighton offering steam baths and 'shampooing' with Indian oils. It was a great success, and he was appointed shampooing surgeon to King George IV and later to William IV. Mahomed is also remembered as the first Indian to publish a book in English. Over the following decades the meaning slid from massaging the head to washing the hair, and then to the liquid used for it. Turkish borrowed şampuan from French shampooing.

Türkçe oku
Şampuan, Hintçede “bastırmak, yoğurmak” anlamına gelen chāmpnā fiilinin emir kipi chāmpo'dan gelir. Sözcük İngilizceye 1762'de “masaj yapmak” anlamıyla girdi, 1860 dolaylarında “saç yıkamak” anlamını kazandı; saç yıkanan sabunlu sıvının adı olması ise daha sonradır.

İngiliz tüccarlar ve memurlar bu sözcükle Hindistan'da tanıştı; orada “shampooing”, çoğu zaman yağlarla yapılan bir baş ve vücut masajıydı. Uygulamayı Britanya'da moda hâline getiren, 1759 dolaylarında Patna'da doğan gezgin ve girişimci Sake Dean Mahomed oldu. Mahomed 1810'larda Brighton'da buhar banyosu ve Hint yağlarıyla masaj sunan bir hamam açtı. İşleri çok iyi gitti; önce Kral IV. George'un, ardından IV. William'ın resmî masörü oldu, unvanı “shampooing surgeon”dı. Mahomed, İngilizce kitap yayımlayan ilk Hintli olarak da anılır. Sonraki on yıllarda sözcüğün anlamı baş masajından saç yıkamaya, oradan da bunun için kullanılan sıvıya kaydı. Türkçedeki şampuan ise Fransızcadaki shampooing'den gelir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Shampoo
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