doek
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A cloth.
noun
A kopdoek: a kerchief or bandanna worn as a head covering.
Example Sentences
- "He said: “What have you got that filthy doek on your head for?”"
- "1982, Can Themba, The Will to Die, "Mama, how about a doek for Janet?" The doek! God save our gracious doek! A doek is a colourful piece of cloth that the African woman wears as headgear. It is tied stylistically into various shapes from Accra to Cape Town. I do not know the history of this innocuous piece of cloth. In Afrikans, the language of those of our white masters who are of Dutch and Huguenot descent, doek meant, variously, a tablecloth, a dirty rag, or a symbol of the slave. Perhaps it was later used by African women in contact with European ideas of beauty who realised that 'they had no hair' and subconsciously hid their heads under the doek. Whatever else, the doek had come to designate the African woman. So that evening when I said, 'Mama, how about a doek for Janet', I was proposing to transform her, despite her colour and her deep blue eyes, into an African woman for the while."
Etymology
Borrowed from Afrikaans doek (“cloth”), from Dutch doek, from Middle Dutch doec, from Old Dutch *duok, from Proto-West Germanic *dōk, from Proto-Germanic *dōkaz. Doublet of duck.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: doek, doec, *duok, *dōk, *dōkaz