chapati
UK[tʃəˈpɑːti]US[tʃəˈpɑːti]
n
A type of flat, unleavened bread from India, made from whole-wheat flour and cooked on a griddle.
Etymology
Chapati is a culinary term borrowed directly into English from Hindi, reflecting the global spread of South Asian cuisine. Its ultimate origin lies in Sanskrit 'carpaṭī', which referred to a flat cake or wafer. The word's journey into English bypasses the typical morpheme recombination of Greco-Latin scientific vocabulary, instead entering as a complete lexical unit denoting a specific food item. This illustrates how cultural exchange through trade and migration introduces simplex loanwords that retain their original form and culinary specificity.
Analysis
This word is a direct loanword from Hindi (चपाती), which itself is derived from the Sanskrit word 'carpaṭī' (चर्पटी), meaning a flat cake or flat thing.
Examples
The meal was served with a warm, soft chapati.
She learned to make perfect chapatis from her grandmother.
The restaurant offers a choice of rice or chapati with its curries.