parka
PAHR-kuh · noun
Origin
Parka entered English in 1780, ultimately from Tundra Nenets парка (parka), passed on through Aleut parka and then Russian па́рка (párka).
This is Curio: one word's origin story, every morning. No feed, no backlog.
One short email each morning. Free; stop anytime. See a sample →
Journey
The word seems to have moved along a chain of Arctic and northern peoples' languages, from Nenets speakers through Aleut and Russian, before settling into English with its familiar meaning of a hooded coat.
Related words
It may be distantly related to dialectal Finnish parka, meaning 'rag' or 'swaddling clothes,' if that word is indeed a Proto-Uralic cognate rather than a separate early borrowing.