Jute
/dʒuːt/noun
A strong, coarse fiber made from the stems of certain tropical plants, used for rope, sacks, and fabric.
Did you know?The English word comes through colonial trade from Bengali, and the fiber became so economically important that it helped shape the industrial world’s sackcloth, ropes, and packaging.
Etymological Timeline
Modern English
English
jute
“A coarse plant fiber used for making sacks, rope, and burlap.”
19th Century
English
jute
“Borrowed into English as the name for the fiber and the plant source of it.”
Bengali
bn
jōṭ
“The fiber of the jute plant; by extension, the plant itself.”
Earlier Indo-Aryan
Indic
juta/jhuta
“A local term for the plant fiber, likely from a regional South Asian source.”
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
unknown
“No secure Proto-Indo-European root is established for this loanword.”