What does burnous mean?
A burnous is a long, loose cloak with an attached hood, woven typically from wool, that serves as the traditional outer garment of Arab and Berber peoples across North Africa. Designed to protect the wearer from sun, wind, and cold desert nights, it is usually white, brown, or cream in colour, and its flowing silhouette has made it an enduring image of Saharan and Maghrebi life. English adopted the word in the seventeenth century from French, which took it from the Arabic 'burnus'. In contemporary usage the term appears chiefly in travel literature, historical accounts, and Orientalist art criticism, where it evokes a romantic picture of the desert. Related spellings such as burnoose are interchangeable with burnous. Though rare in everyday speech, the word remains valuable to writers seeking precision about North African costume rather than a generic term like cloak or robe.
nounA long hooded cloak of wool or coarse fabric, traditionally worn by Arabs and Berbers of North Africa.
- A long hooded cloak worn by Arabs and Berbers of North Africa, typically made of wool.
"The desert guide drew his burnous tightly around his shoulders against the evening chill."
"Wrapped in a white burnous, the elder sat apart from the bustling market square."
"In paintings of the Orientalist school, figures draped in a burnous lend scenes an air of North African romance."
Both plurals are accepted; 'burnooses' follows the spelling variant burnoose.
"The traders arrived wrapped in heavy burnouses against the mountain wind."
The burnous is the same garment Napoleon's troops encountered in Egypt — and the word travelled straight out of Arabic into English almost unchanged.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of burnous
The English word 'burnous' was borrowed from French 'burnous', itself taken from the Arabic 'burnus' (برنس), the name of the hooded cloak worn across North Africa. Some sources suggest the Arabic may ultimately derive from Latin 'birrus', a hooded cloak of late antiquity, though this connection is not universally accepted. The word entered English around the early-to-mid seventeenth century through travellers' accounts of the Barbary coast. Variant spellings including burnoose and burnouse reflect different transmission routes into European languages.
How burnous is actually used
The word carries an exotic, historical flavour in modern English, appearing mostly in travel writing, historical fiction, and descriptions of North African dress. The spellings burnouse, burnoose, and bernous are all attested variants; 'burnous' is among the more common forms. It is a count noun with standard plural forms.
Easily confused with burnous
Burnoose is simply a variant spelling of the same word; both refer to the identical North African hooded cloak.