suttee

[suh-tee, suht-ee]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR suttee ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

sati.

Related formssut·tee·ism, noun

sati

or sa·tī, sut·tee

[suh-tee, suht-ee]

noun

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

First recorded in 1780–90, sati is from the Sanskrit word satī good woman, woman devoted to her husband

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for suttee

fuel, bonfire, heap, hara-kiri, self-destruction, self-immolation, seppuku

Examples from the Web for suttee

Historical Examples of suttee

Did we wait until India herself asked for the abolition of suttee?
Lotus Buds
Amy Carmichael
He issued his proclamation abolishing the Suttee in his district.
Following the Equator, Complete
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
He speaks with sympathy of suttee, and he quotes the Volga-Kalmucks with approval.
Home Life in Germany
Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick
Rite of suttee abolished in Hindostan by the British authorities.
The Every Day Book of History and Chronology
Joel Munsell
She happened to have been reading about suttee in a feminist paper only a day or two before.
Gray youth
Oliver Onions

British Dictionary definitions for suttee

suttee

noun

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

Derived Formssutteeism, noun

Word Origin for suttee

C18: from Sanskrit satī virtuous woman, from sat good

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.