Where does the word "pajamas" come from?

Where does the word “pajamas” come from?

The word “pajamas” indicates a seemingly banal everyday garment. And yet, it carries within it the history of British colonization.

A little word can carry a big story. Pajamas are an apparently banal and not very attractive part of everyday life. However, the etymological origin of this word uncovers histories of English colonization and appropriation in South Asia, and how these have left a permanent trace in language, too.

The word “pyjama” comes originally from Persian پايجامه ‎, or pāy-jāmeh, meaning “leg garment”, and it then travelled to Hindustani pāy-jāma. The English adopted this word and the garment during the British colonial East India Company rule in India. Pajamas were loose trousers tied at the waist, usually in cotton, that were worn by many people in India and other parts of Asia.

While colonial control of Indian territory by the British East India Company expanded, British colonizers came to realize that pajamas were particularly comfortable, and by the mid-nineteenth century they had adopted them as a clothing style for afternoon naps.

Following the Indian Rebellion in 1857, England gradually dismantled the East India Company and the British Crown took direct control of India. It was in this time, during the Victorian era and this tight relationship with the colony, that pajamas’ combination of tops and trousers increasingly replaced men’s long traditional nightdresses in England.

Everybody Wants Pajamas

Due to the strong influence of Britain in that time, other parts of Europe soon adopted pajamas as a word and a garment too, and by the 1920s the concept had travelled to the United States. Soon, women also started to wear pajamas, which became more and more popular as the evening ritual of putting on the comfortable garment started to appear in Hollywood movies. In the era of consumerism, advertisement further made pajamas a necessary garment in many places.

While the colonial appropriation of pajamas in the XIX century transformed it into a night dress, nowadays it is becoming more and more normalized to wear pajamas during the day and outside the house – in the US, for instance. The COVID-19 pandemic of course will reinforce this tendency. As many people have to spend long hours at home, wearing a pajama has become a new trend with old origins.

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