Eggcorn Forum

Coming up later this fall will be the first anniversary of the hashtag DuragHistoryWeek, an ironical glorification of the sartorial skypiece adopted by “urban youth” as far back as the 70s. Here’s Will Smith modelling one:

This exotic head scarf looks like something off the high seas, or out of the desert, right? Like something one of the blue-scarved tuaregs might wear, for instance. Early Wikipedia posts traced it back to Ethiopia—”Emperor Menelik II would wear them to cover his (what I can only imagine to be) beautiful weave.” Also, “The history of the durag is most notably attributed to civil war era slaves, but it’s first appearance seems to predate that time. It is, however, most closely assiciated with afro american culture because the slaves brought that style with them from their native land.”

Apparently the durag is used to shape curly hair into more regular waves, and to protect treated hair during sleep. To protect the hairdo. Whatever the long history of wearing a scarf on the head, the first mention of a durag that has been turned up is from a 1974 Frank Zappa tune, Uncle Remus. The lyrics there include:

I can’t wait till my ‘fro is full-grown
I’ll just stow ‘way my do-rag at home

It’s sometimes hard to know what level of irony. or absence thereof, FZ intended, but on the face of it, this song is about abandoning the conformity and confinement of the durag, at least for the time needed to knock the jockeys off the rich folks’s lawns.

The spelling there, as do-rag, is a part of this story. Both MW and the OED suggest that the durag is actually the do-rag, a slang description of the cloth meant to keep your do in place. So whence the durag? It looks like it might be an eggcornical recasting of the do-rag into a piece of traditional apparel. It worked on me.

Other ovoid versions of the do-rag include my two favourites, the dew rag and the dude rag. The dew rag fits its use inside motorcycle and football helmets to absorb sweat.

Huh. I always thought it was spelled “dew rag.” Learn something new every day.
Response to DuragHistoryWeek

A durag is a piece of fabric that wraps around the head and has a tail at the back for tying. The name “durag” probably comes from “dude rag”, as it is also commonly known. Rappers like 50 Cent and Nelly have a durag as their signature appearance.
Wikipedia May 2005

Last edited by David Bird (2015-09-07 16:09:59)