Pajamas

Pajamas

Noun (plural) · /pəˈdʒɑː.məz/

Definition

Loose, comfortable clothing worn for sleeping, consisting of a top and trousers; also used more broadly for any loose, lightweight clothing worn at home for relaxation. British spelling: pyjamas.

Origin

From Hindi pāyjāma, from Persian pāy (leg) + jāma (garment) — literally leg garment. The word entering English through the British colonial presence in India, where the loose cotton trousers worn by men and women across South Asia were adopted by British colonists as nightwear. The garment arriving in Britain in the late eighteenth century and becoming fashionable as loungewear and then sleepwear by the nineteenth century. The American spelling pajamas and the British pyjamas diverging in the nineteenth century.