'charpai' originates from Hindi-Urdu, specifically the word 'charpāī', where 'char' meant 'four' and 'pāī' (from 'pā', 'pāda') meant 'foot' or 'leg'.

'charpai' changed from earlier Hindi-Urdu and Prakrit formations combining elements meaning 'four' and 'foot/leg' (from Sanskrit roots such as 'catur' and 'pāda'), and through regional use and Persian/Indo-Aryan contact became the modern English borrowing 'charpai' (also attested as 'charpoy').

Initially, it referred literally to a 'four-footed' or 'four-legged' sleeping platform; over time it came to denote specifically the woven bed or cot itself used widely in South Asia.