What Kept Me Awake Last Night...

I have a toddler. Therefore, I have an interesting (and sometimes very anemic) sleep schedule. For instance, the baby is sleeping peacefully next to me on the couch as I write this--nodding but somehow unable to nap. She has been taking epic naps lately, to make up for her bizarre and seemingly patternless nocturnal wakings. Last night, we were up from about 3.30 to 5 a.m. Or rather, I was, pacing her room while she dozed in my arms. If I lay her down, she wakes up and cries (I know, I have failed as a tough, cry-it-out parent; my 15-month-old can't sleep without Mama...anyway...), if I sit in the rocking chair, I fall asleep and risk both of us falling on the floor. So, I pace. And think of random things to keep myself awake. I usually sing a few songs in my head, think about my school work, or compose little poemlets which rarely make it to a page. But sometimes, an idea wiggles its way into my brain and keeps me awake, even after I have laid the baby down in her crib and tiptoed like a cartoon maniac through the room, avoiding all the squeaking floorboards. Last night, this idea was a word: "shampoo." Earlier, during bathtime, the little girl attempted to say this word. She said "poopoo," much to Mama's amusement. It got me to thinking: the "real" word isn't much less amusing. Shampoo. Come on, say it a dozen times and tell me you didn't giggle a little. So where does this word come from? The Oxford English Dictionary states that this word comes to us from a Hindi word meaning "to press." At first, this makes little sense...of all the ways I would describe shampooing, pressing my hair is not one of them. The OED goes on, however, to relate how this word made it into modern English and American English usage. During British colonization of India, one could get a shampoo--that is, basically a vigorous full-body massage ending with a hair-washing. For some reason, the 18th Century British population didn't really take to this full-body Turkish bath tradition...how odd. Well, at any rate, the colonizers did enjoy the hair-washing portion of the show, and adopted the practice with the name "shampoo" applying to just that procedure, and to the soap. And here we are. My nocturnal wonderings are not always so informative. To answer this question, I used a couple of references: The Oxford English Dictionary Online: The Word Detective: