suttee
- sati.
sati
or sa·tī, sut·tee
- a Hindu practice whereby a widow immolates herself on the funeral pyre of her husband: now abolished by law.
- a Hindu widow who so immolates herself.
Origin of sati
Related Words for suttee
fuel, bonfire, heap, suttee, hara-kiri, self-destruction, self-immolation, seppukuExamples from the Web for suttee
Historical Examples of suttee
Did we wait until India herself asked for the abolition of suttee?
Lotus BudsAmy Carmichael
He issued his proclamation abolishing the Suttee in his district.
Following the Equator, CompleteMark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
He speaks with sympathy of suttee, and he quotes the Volga-Kalmucks with approval.
Home Life in GermanyMrs. Alfred Sidgwick
Rite of suttee abolished in Hindostan by the British authorities.
The Every Day Book of History and ChronologyJoel Munsell
She happened to have been reading about suttee in a feminist paper only a day or two before.
Gray youthOliver Onions
suttee
- the former Hindu custom whereby a widow burnt herself to death on her husband's funeral pyre
- a Hindu widow who immolated herself in this way
Word Origin for suttee
Word Origin and History for suttee
"self-cremation of a Hindu widow on her husband's funeral pyre," 1786, from Hindi, from Sanskrit sati "virtuous woman," fem. of sat "good, wise," literally "existing," present participle of asmi "I am" (cognate with Latin esse; see essence). Properly, the word for the woman who does so. The custom was abolished in British India in 1829.