The word comes through
Portuguese and
Arabic , , from the
Gujarati , , meaning "merchant". European women wore banyans in the 18th century as dressing gowns in the morning, before robing for the day, or in the evening before bed over undergarments, as described by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England. In the humid climate of
Colonial Virginia, gentlemen wore lightweight banyans as informal street wear in summer. It was fashionable for men of an intellectual or philosophical bent to have their
portraits painted while wearing banyans.
Benjamin Rush wrote: Loose dresses contribute to the easy and vigorous exercise of the faculties of the mind. This remark is so obvious, and so generally known, that we find studious men are always painted in gowns, when they are seated in their libraries. Despite the name "nightgown", the banyan was not worn for sleeping. == See also ==