Gunny Sacks Are Named From an Indian Word for Jute

Gunny is coarse heavy sacking, usually woven from jute. The word came from Hindi *gōni*, a sack, from Sanskrit *goni*, and it reached English through the Indian trade in the 1700s. Bengal supplied most of the world's jute, and the cloth carried its Indian name wherever it went. In Britain the same material is usually called *hessian*, and in America *burlap*.

• Coarse jute sacking. *A gunny sack.*
• Hessian — the British name. *A hessian bag.*
• Burlap — the American name. *A burlap sack.*
• Jute — the fibre. *Jute fibre.*
• Hindi — *gōni*, a sack. *The source.*

Word forms

• The grain came in gunny sacks.Trade.
• Hessian is the British term.Naming.
• Jute grows mainly in Bengal.Origin.

One cloth, three names

• Gunny — Indian and widely used in trade
• Hessian — British, named after the German state of Hesse
• Burlap — American, of uncertain origin
• Jute — the plant fibre all three are woven from
• Used for sacks, sandbags, backing and garden cloth

Hindi and Marathi *gōni*, a sack, from Sanskrit *goni*. English recorded it in the 1700s through the Indian trade.