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turban

Etymology and origin of the English word turban

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈtɜːbən/ (UK); /ˈtɝbən/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French turbant,[2][3][4][5] from Italian turbante (Old Italian tolipante),[2][3][4][5] from Turkish tülbent (“gauze, muslin”),[2][3][4][5][6] from Persian دلبند (dulband, “turban”).[3][4][5][6] It is the same word as tulip.[4] The change of l to r may have taken place in Portuguese India and spread to other European languages,[4] and may have been encouraged by a chance resemblance to Latin turbō “spinning top”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A man's headdress of Muslim origin, a long cloth wound round a cap (1561, in the form tolipane).[7][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Early English forms include tolipane (1561), torbant (1588) and turban (1597).[3][6] From 1610 the turban was used as a symbol of Islam.[7] A modified version became a fashionable headdress for women in Europe and America about 1776–1800,[4][7] and it has been revived from time to time as a close-fitting brimless hat.[4][2][5] The word was also used of the cloth headdress of Black women in the West Indies and the American South (1839).[7][4] In cookery a turban is a ring-shaped mould of fish or meat (1846).[7][5]

Timeline

  • 1561 – tolipane, a turban.[3][7]
  • 1588 – torbant.[3][5]
  • 1597 – turban.[3]
  • 1776 – a women's fashion headdress.[7]
  • 1822 – verb, to wrap as with a turban.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A man's headdress, traditionally worn by Muslims, made of a long scarf of linen, cotton or silk wound around a small cap or directly around the head.
  2. A woman's close-fitting hat without a brim, or with a narrow draped brim.
  3. A towel wrapped round long wet hair in a similar way.

Word family

  • turbaned
  • turbanless
  • turbanlike

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Turban.” Etymologically, 11 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/turban. Accessed 11 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·