Turban

Turban (pronounced tur-buhn)

(1) A man's headdress, associated particularly with Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs in South Asia (but with a long tradition of use in many places), consisting of a long lengths of silk, linen, cotton etc, swathed either about a cap-like base or directly around the head.

(2) Any headdress resembling this.

(3) In fashion, any of various off-the-face hats for women that are close-fitting, of a soft fabric, and brimless, or that have a narrow, sometimes draped, brim.

(4) In zoology, the complete set of whorls of a spiral shell.

1555-1565: From fifteenth century Middle French turbant, from the Italian turbante, from the Old Italian tolipante, from the Ottoman Turkish دلبند‎ (tülbent) (gauze, muslin, tulle), from the Persian دلبند‎ (dolband) (turban) (which was the source also of “tulip”.  The obsolete alternative forms were turbant & tulipant.  For reasons related presumably to traditions of pronunciation, the spelling change from “l” to “r” may have happened in Portuguese India and from there picked up in other European languages.  Long a men's headdress, in the late eighteenth century variations of the style became popular as women’s fashion.  The alternative spellings of turbaned & turbaning are turbanned & turbanning and there derived forms are enturban, enturbanment, enturbanning & beturbaned.  Turban is a noun; tubaned & turbanning are verbs and turban-& turbanesque are adjectives; the noun plural is turbans.

Lindsay Lohan in turban, in costume during the filming of Liz & Dick (2012).

Quite when and where the turban originated is unknown but few doubt it was one of the earliest forms of headwear, adopted presumably for warmth or protection from the elements, the link to matter of cultural significance or fashion emerging as societies developed.  The essence of a turban is that it’s a form of headwear created by swathing long lengths of silk, linen, cotton etc either about a cap-like base or directly around the head.  Although in the popular imagination it seems most associated with the cultures of South Asia (notably in Sikhism), the practice is neither geographically specific nor or necessity vested with religious meaning although for many, the wearing of a turban is certainly devotional.  The tradition can be found throughout much of Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus and in Asia.  A similar garment was the puggry (also spelled pagari, pagri, pugaree, puggaree, puggerie, puggery, puggree, puggri & pugree), from the Hindi.  It was a strip of cloth wound around the upper portion of a hat (particularly a pith helmet), and falling down behind to act as a shade for the back of the neck.  Some women do wear a classic turban but in fashion, the style called a turban is actually a spectrum of hats which to some extent emulate the appearance of a turban although they are “pre-wrapped” as it were, ready-to-wear and close-fitting, constructing using soft materials and either brimless or with a narrow (sometimes draped), brim.  In the industry jargon, they’re an “off-the-face” hat.

Devout Sikh holy man Avtar Singh Mauni (b 1954) wears a turban consisting of 645 m (2120 feet) of fabric which the Guinness World Records has verified as the longest known to exist.  Weighing around 45 kg (100 lb) (the same length as 13 Olympic standard swimming pools or 1¼ quarter-mile (400 m) drag strips), it takes some six hours to wrap.  Mr Sauni added length to his turban for over a decade until the impressive length was achieved although it does necessitate certain lifestyle changes, doorways some time challenging and he can't fit inside a car, travelling usually by Royal Enfield motorcycle.  Most Sikh turbans use between 5-7 m (16-23 feet) of fabric but Mr Mauni says the principle of swathing are the same regardless of length, the wrapping proceeding “from top to bottom one layer at a time just like you would lay the storeys of a building.”