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sash

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Pronunciation

sash1 band worn over the shoulder or round the waist

Etymology

The band is borrowed from Arabic شَاش (šāš, “muslin; turban”),[2][3][4][5][6] first borrowed as shash.[2][3][7] The spelling sash arose by dissimilation of the two sh-sounds; it is first recorded in 1687, after an earlier shass of 1617.[3][7] The American Heritage Dictionary relates the Arabic word to a Hebrew word for fine linen, both probably from Egyptian šs (“linen”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A length of fine cloth worn twisted round the head as a turban, in Middle Eastern countries: 1599, in Ralph Fitch's account in Hakluyt's Principal Navigations.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Ayto explains that the Arabic word meant both a turban and the strip of muslin from which turbans were made, and that the second meaning led to the modern sense.[8] Trench noted that the word first meant the roll of silk or linen worn about the head, and quoted Herbert's Travels (1638) for a Persian whose head "was wreathed with a huge shash".[9] The turban sense died out in the early 18th century.[2][5] From 1681 a sash was a scarf worn by men over one shoulder or round the waist, often as a mark of military rank,[2][3][10] and later also an ornamental band worn by women and children.[2][5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a belt worn by way of distinction".[11]

Timeline

  • 1599 – “shash”, cloth wound round the head as a turban (obsolete by 1718).[2][3]
  • 1617 – the form “shass”.[3]
  • 1681 – a scarf worn over the shoulder or round the waist.[2][3]
  • 1687 – the spelling sash.[3]
  • before 1797 – verb, to adorn with a sash, in Burke.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A long band of cloth worn round the waist or over one shoulder, as an ornament or as a sign of rank or office: The mayor wore a red sash at the ceremony.[12][4][2]
  2. (obsolete, 1599–1718) A turban.[4][2]

Verb

  1. To dress or adorn with a sash.[4][2]

Word family

  • sashed
  • sashless

sash2 window frame

Etymology

The window frame is probably borrowed from French châssis (“frame of a window or door”),[4][2][3][5][6] taken as a plural, so that a new singular sash was formed from it.[3][5][13][14] It is first recorded in the plural “sashes”, and Weekley and Hoad give the earlier forms shash and shashes;[3][7][13] the singular appears before 1704.[3][10] The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins notes that both French and English speakers then pronounced the final -s of chassis.[15] The French word goes back to Latin capsa (“box”),[8][15] and English borrowed it again in the 20th century as chassis.[15][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A frame fitted with panes of glass, forming a window or part of one: 1681, in Charles Cotton's Wonders of Peake.[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The word was used especially for the sliding frames of a sash window, held in grooves by cords and weights.[2][5] From 1687 to 1822 it also meant a window frame covered with paper or linen instead of glass, the older meaning of chassis,[2] and since 1707 a glazed light of a greenhouse or garden frame.[2] American English added a frame that holds a saw blade taut (1875).[2] The verb, to fit with sash windows, is recorded from the early 18th century, in Celia Fiennes's diary;[2][5] Barnhart dates it to 1796, in Burke.[3] The sash door, with panes to let in light, is recorded by 1726.[10]

Timeline

  • 1681 – a glazed window frame, at first in the plural “sashes”.[2][3]
  • 1687 – a window frame covered with paper or linen (obsolete by 1822).[2]
  • before 1704 – the singular sash.[3]
  • 1700s – verb, to furnish with sash windows.[2][5]
  • 1707 – a glazed light of a garden frame.[2]
  • 1726 – sash door.[10]
  • 1875 – a frame stretching a saw blade, in the United States.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A frame holding the panes of glass of a window or door, especially either of the two sliding frames of a sash window: He painted the window sashes white.[12][4][2]
  2. A glazed frame covering a greenhouse or cold frame.[4][2]

Verb

  1. To fit with a sash or sash windows.[12][4][2]

Word family

  • sash cord
  • sash weight

Usage notes

Johnson (1755) admitted that etymologists gave no account of the word, and guessed that it came from French sçavoir, to know, since a sash was a mark of distinction and a sash window was made for seeing and being seen.[11]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  10. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  15. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press