Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Today I learned that there's a Swiss town named Duffel

I'm annotating a Clive Cussler book, and he had a character hand up a duffel bag to another character. I decided to try to find out the history of the duffel bag, and thanks to Wikipedia, it took no time at all. A duffel bag (or duffle bag, kit bag, gym bag) is a large cylindrical bag made of cloth (or other fabric) with a drawstring closure at the top. The name comes from Duffel,[1] a town in Belgium where the thick cloth used to make the bag originated. More recently, a duffel bag typically refers to the specific style of bag, though the phrase may also be used to refer to any large generic holdall or a bag made of thick fabric. It is often used to carry luggage or sports equipment by people who travel in the outdoors. Duffel bags are also often used by military personnel. When used by sailors or Marines they are sometimes called seabags or "ditty" bags. Now, why do sailors call them "ditty" bags? Wikipedia didn't say. I'll save that research for another day.

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