My kids - all girls - have never heard of the expression “duty length” as it relates to skirts. I tried to find an online cite, but I was unable come up with anything. Does anyone know where the expression came from?
I don’t know that expression either. What’s it mean?
Is it maybe a reference to military uniform code? The length of skirt one would wear while on duty?
The internet overmind is turning up a fair number of references to Jewish blogs and websites, so maybe this concept of duty-length is a Orthodox cultural artifact. It’s calf-length, by the way.
I’ve never heard the term before either, but I think I understand what it’s supposed to mean.
New to me. I imagine it means long enough to meet some standard, but don’t specifically what it is.
ETA: I just did a Goodle search and came up with a bunch of frum discussion boards (frum is the term for Jewish women who follow laws regarding modesty- covering hair, skirts, long sleeves etc). Top four or five hits are all from these frum sites. Defines it as between short and long. None, I saw, explains where it comes from, tho.
OK- I feel silly- Shinna Minna Ma: you are an Israeli Jew and I’m schooling you in frum?
In the words of our people: Oy.
Frum is actually a unisex term, from the yiddish word for devout.
Yeah, but you generally hear it only pertaining to women, in my direct experience, anyway.
Naaah, frum really does pertain to both sexes.
I, personally, just only about heard it about women- my mom was raised Lubovitch in Poland and when I was little we went to a Lubovitch shul, but left when I was small. I’ve lived near many Young Israel communities (in Pittsburgh and St. Louis- just happened that way!), but I only had my direct experience to go on. I guess, I never spoke with enough men to hear them talk about themselves!
Yeah, it’s used equally in referring to men and women.
OP: I always thought it was “doodie-length”, and my wife confirms that.
Did you think it was the length that made it easier to go “doodie”?
Yeah, I’d never heard of it either. Anyone want to link some pics of the appropriate length? Between short and long can mean a lot of different things. If no pic, can you describe where the bottom of the skirt lies?
I’m thinking like a capri skirt, stopping half way between the knees and ankles, as I think of anything above the knees as being shorter than short: the miniskirt.
No, they’re called doodie-length because they’re considered unattractive. Many frum girls’ schools have uniforms which include skirts of this length, and they are not especially well-liked.
I was raised Jewish, and in my experience “frum” can apply to men and women alike. I never heard about duty- or doodie-length skirts, though. I assume it’s the length that the ultra-orthodox women wear, right? I see it every day around here.
I believe it has some military uniform length standard meaning but the “frum” and this post are drawing the most hits. “Duty length hair” has a definite military connotation.
I’ve never heard the term before, but I figured it had something to do with skirt lengths for occupational/job uniforms.
I’ve had contact with a Christian group that has similar practices regarding clothing, but I’ve never heard them use this term.
The whole topic began at our Shabbat table last week, when my oldest insisted that her friends all said “doodie-length” for exactly the reason you gave. I had heard the actual “duty-length” before, and told her I would send her some links that proved my point. That’s where the OP came from.
I can’t believe that my kid was half-right on this one! :eek:
I’ve asked this of my daughter and wife several times. If I remember correctly, they considered the “doodie” theory to be credible, but not likely since the general pronunciation used the “t” sound.
I am just now learning that ‘doodie’ means unattractive. All this time I thought it was poo-poo caca.
By the way, I think this is a GREAT example of the problems faced by etymologists [those who study word origins]. We have here a new word, used quite freely by one particular group, who all generally agree on its meaning. But because it was rarely or never used in print, we’re pretty much limited to guesswork on how it was invented and how to properly spell it.