ghee

Etymology

It is borrowed from Hindi घी (ghī),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} also Urdu گهی (ghī),^[7] from Sanskrit घृत (ghṛtá, “clarified butter”),^{[3][4][5][8][6]} the past participle of a verb meaning "to sprinkle".^{[9][2][6][10][11]} Klein relates the Sanskrit noun to Middle Irish gert (“milk”), and Merriam-Webster and Klein probably to a Sanskrit verb meaning "he besprinkles".^[8][4] The American Heritage Dictionary refers it to the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *gʷher-.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Butter from buffalo's or cow's milk, clarified by boiling so that it is like oil: 1665, in Thomas Herbert's Some Years Travels.^[2][4] Dictionary.com dates it to 1655–65.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Hobson-Jobson called ghee the universal medium of cookery throughout India, taking the place that oil has in southern Europe.^[13] On the Indian station it was served to ships' companies instead of butter.^[14] By the 1830s the word formed compounds such as ghee-pot and ghee-fed.^[15] Merriam-Webster also records it for a cooking fat made from vegetable oils.^[4]

Timeline

• 1665 – clarified butter.^[2][4]
• 1835 – in compounds, ghee-bowl, ghee-pot, ghee-fed.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A semifluid clarified butter, usually from buffalo's or cow's milk, used in South Asian cooking: Fry the onions in a spoonful of ghee.^{[16][4][3][2]}
2. A cooking fat made from vegetable oils.^[4]

Usage notes

It is also spelt ghi.^[4][9] American slang had an unrelated ghee, a man or fellow, a respelling of guy, from 1922.^[17]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Yule, Henry; Burnell, A. C. (1903), Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, new ed. by William Crooke, London: John Murray
14. ^ Smyth, W. H. (1867), The Sailor's Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, London: Blackie and Son
15. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com