sinh

Etymology

Borrowed from Lao ສິ້ນ (sin) or Thai ซิ่น (sîn).

noun

1. A traditional tube skirt worn by Lao and Thai women, particularly northern Thai and northeastern Thai women.
   These dancers with their graceful upright carriage, their dreamy distant expressions and their party sins (the women were wearing sins made of brightly-coloured silk woven in squares and broad stripes and usually worn by men) were infinitely more appealing than the younger dancers and the electronic band but, as Darachit was fond of saying and without apparent regret, 'Les traditions ne sont plus respectees." 1992, Lucretia Stewart, Tiger balm: travels in Laos, Vietnam & Cambodia, page 25
   The only enforced dress codes now [in Laos] are for female public servants who continue to wear the sinh, though outside of work they can wear what they like. 1998, Grant Evans, The Politics of Ritual and Remembrance: Laos Since 1975, page 86
   After the change in regime of 1975, every woman seen in public was wearing a sin, as this was part of a dresscode favoured by the new socialist government. 2008, Robert Cooper, CultureShock! Laos: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette
   Communism made things even worse by eliminating the export market for locally made textiles and, in some cases, prohibiting the production of silk and the manufacture of clothes. Although traditional sins were allowed, colorful ones were considered bourgeois and banned. 2009, Arne Kislenko, Culture and Customs of Laos, page 128