suttee

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the historical practice among some Hindu communities in South Asia in which a widow died, or was killed, on her husband's funeral pyre, sometimes under coercion

   The colonial administration debated whether banning suttee constituted protection or religious interference.

2. 2
   noun

   historically and now dated, a widow who died or was killed in this practice

   The court record referred to the deceased widow as a suttee, using the terminology of the period.

Borrowed through Hindi sati from Sanskrit sati, 'good or faithful wife,' the feminine of sat, 'true, good, virtuous.' The colonial-era spelling suttee has been used in English since the late eighteenth century; sati is now the more common transliteration.

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